/0.2S.2.J, 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON.  N.  J. 

Presented  by 

cTcA^cAn  Soc\s-V^. 

Division..  ,3)..S  85  5 

• o ^ 


Section. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/awakeningofjapan00okak_0 


THE 

AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


THE  AWAKENING 
OF  JAPAN 

N. 

BY 

OKAKURA-KAKUZO  ' 

AUTHOR  OF  “the  IDEALS  OF  THE  EAST” 


SPECIAL  EDITION  FOR 

JAPAN  SOCIETY,  Inc. 
25  WEST  43d  STREET 
NEW  YORK 
1921 


Copyright,  1904,  by 
The  Cextury  Co. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Publishers’  Preface ix 

Chapter  I.  The  Night  of  Asia 

The  sudden  development  of  Japan  an  enigrma  to  foreign 
observers — Asia  the  true  source  of  Japan’s  inspiration — 
While  Christendom  struggled  with  medievalism  the 
Buddhaland  was  a garden  of  culture — Effect  of  Islam 
upon  Asia — The  Mongol  outburst  destroyed  Asia’s  unity 
— ^The  condition  of  China  and  India — Japan  never  con- 
quered, but  buried  alive  for  nearly  270  years  ....  3 

Chapter  II.  The  Chrysalis 

Japan  under  the  Tokugawa  shogunate — lyeyasu’s  influ- 
ence— The  Mikado’s  palace  the  “Forbidden  Interior’’ — 

Tlie  kuges,  or  court  aristocracy — The  daimios — ^The 
samurai,  or  sworded  gentry — ^The  commoners:  farmers, 
artisans,  and  traders — The  outcasts — The  nation  in  a 
pleasant  slumber 22 

Chapter  III.  Buddhism  and  Confucianism 

Buddhism  and  Confucianism  never  interfered  in  matters 
of  state — Despite  its  temples  and  monasteries,  Japan  has 
no  church — Neo-Confucitnism 53 

Chapter  IV.  The  Voice  from  Within 

Three  schools  of  thought  united  in  causing  the  regener- 
ation of  Japan— First,  the  Kogaku,  or  School  of  Classical 
Learning— Second,  the  School  of  Oyomei — Third,  the 

Historical  School  70 

V 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Chapter  V.  The  White  Disaster 

The  advent  of  the  West  not  an  unmixed  blessing — But 
the  Japanese  eagerly  identify  themselves  with  Western 
civilization — And  are  regarded  as  renegades  by  their 
neighbors — Russia  the  first  European  nation  to  threaten 
Japan,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century — The  advent 
of  American  war-vessels  a mighty  shock 95 


Chapter  VI.  The  Cabinet  and  the 
Boudoir 

The  coming  of  Commodore  Perry  unites  the  nation — The 
ladies  of  Yedo  Castle  and  the  shogunate — The  shogun 
of  Commodore  Perry’s  time — The  confiict  on  the  succes- 
sion to  the  shogunate — Execution  of  agitators — Assassi- 
nation of  the  Premier  Hikone 113 


Chapter  VII.  The  Transition 

Eight  years  of  rapid  changes — The  Federalists — The 
Imperialists — The  Unionists — The  last  of  the  shoguns  . 141 


Chapter  VIII.  Restoration  and  Refor- 
mation 

The  Restoration  essentially  a return — Past  -conditions 
revived,  with  the  new  spirit  of  freedom  and  equality — 
Constitutional  government  a success  in  Japan — Edu- 
cation— The  commoner  transformed  into  a samurai  by 
the  system  of  military  servuee — The  Japanese  soldier’s 
contempt  of  death  not  founded  on  hope  of  future  reward 
— The  exaltation  of  womanhood— The  question  of  treaty 
revision — The  helm  in  strong  hands 162 


Chapter  IX.  The  Reincarnation 

Japan  accepts  the  new  withoiit  sacrificing  the  old — The 
heart  of  Old  Japan  still  beats  strongly — In  art  Japan 
stands  alone  against  all  the  world 

vi 


1S4 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Chapter  X.  Japan  and  Peace 

The  very  natiire  of  Japanese  civilization  prohibits  aggres- 
sion— Relations  with  China  and  Korea — ^The  war  with 
China  in  1894-5 — ^The  Yellow  Peril — ^The  night  of  the 
Orient  has  been  lifted,  but  the  world  still  in  the  dusk  of 
humanity 201 


Chronology 


224 


PUBLISHERS’  PREFACE 


Okakura-Kakuzo,  the  author  of  this 
work  and  of  “ The  Ideals  of  the  East,” 
was  born  in  the  year  1863.  Having 
been,  as  he  has  said,  “ from  early  youth 
fond  of  old  things,”  after  leaving  col- 
lege in  1880  he  interested  himself  in  the 
formation  of  clubs  and  societies  for  ar- 
chaeological research.  The  Japanese 
Renaissance,  begun  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  suffered  a brief 
check  during  the  civil  commotion  fol- 
lowing the  opening  of  the  country  after 
the  arrival  of  the  American  Commodore 
Perry.  The  work  of  Okakura  was  a 
resumption  of  that  begun  by  the  earlier 
scholars. 

In  1886  this  scholarly  young  enthu- 
siast was  sent  to  America  and  Europe 
as  a commissioner  to  report  on  Western 
art  education.  On  returning,  he  organ- 


IX 


ized  the  Imperial  Art  School  of  Tokio, 
of  which  he  was  made  director.  He  was 
also  one  of  the  chief  organizers,  and  is 
still  a member,  of  the  Imperial  Archaeo- 
logical Commission,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
study,  classify,  and  preserve  the  ancient 
architecture,  the  archives  of  the  monas- 
teries, and  all  specimens  of  ancient  art. 

Okakura  was,  naturally,  one  of  the 
promoters  of  the  reactionary  movement 
against  the  wholesale  introduction  of 
Western  art  and  manners.  This  move- 
ment was  carried  on  by  the  starting  of 
periodicals  and  clubs  devoted  to  the 
preservation  of  the  old  life  of  Japan, — 
the  work  being  carried  on,  also,  in  the 
field  of  literature  and  the  drama. 

In  1898  he  resigned  the  directorship 
of  the  Imperial  Art  School  at  Tokio, 
having  had  some  difference  with  the 
educational  authorities  in  the  matter  of 
the  course  of  instruction  to  be  pursued 
therein.  Nearly  one  half  of  the  faculty 
resigned  at  the  same  time,  and  started, 
in  a suburb  of  Tokio,  a private  acad- 


emy  called  Nippon  Bijitsuin.  Here 
are  kept  up  the  ancient  traditions  of  na- 
tive art. 

Simultaneously  with  the  foundation 
of  this  school  of  instruction,  a number 
of  prominent  painters  of  the  national 
school  of  art  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  organized  the  Society  of  Japa- 
nese Painters,  of  which  the  president  is 
Prince  Nijo, — the  head  of  the  Fujiwara 
family  and  uncle  of  the  crown  prin- 
cess,— Okakura  being  elected  vice- 
president. 

It  is  proper  to  state  that  the  present 
work,  like  “ The  Ideals  of  the  East,’’  is 
not  a translation,  but  is  written  by  its 
Japanese  author  originally  in  English. 
This  work  is  based  not  merely  upon 
printed  material  and  common  hearsay, 
but  upon  information  derived  through 
the  author’s  special  acquaintance  with 
surviving  actors  in  the  Restoration. 

In  “The  Awakening  of  Japan”  the 
author  answers  with  profound  knowl- 
edge, great  vividness  of  expression,  and 


XI 


intense  patriotism  the  question  now  up- 
permost in  the  minds  of  Western  ob- 
servers : From  what  sources  are  drawn 
the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities 
which  have  enabled  the  present  genera- 
tion of  statesmen,  citizens,  soldiers,  and 
sailors,  under  an  able  emperor,  to  enter 
suddenly,  as  a first-class  liberal  power, 
into  the  company  of  nations? 

The  author  shows  clearly  and  pictur- 
esquely that  the  accomplishments  of  the 
New  Japan  are  the  natural  outcome  of 
her  history, — her  religion,  her  art,  her 
tradition.  He  declares  that  there  is  no 
“Yellow  Peril”;  that  the  empire, 
though  warlike,  stands  not  for  aggres- 
sion but  for  peace!  He  sketches  the  en- 
tire history  of  the  country,  but  dwells 
particularly  upon  modern  events  and 
developments, — ^the  opening  of  the  long- 
closed  door  of  the  imprisoned  nation  by 
Commodore  Perry,  the  restoration  of 
the  Mikado  to  power,  the  new  regime, 
the  occasion  of  the  war  of  1904.  He 
essays  an  answer  to  the  anxious  query 


Xll 


of  the  admirers  of  the  art  of  Japan: 
Will  Japan’s  modern  successes  lead  to 
the  loss  of  its  ancient  and  distinctivie  art  ? 
He  indicates  some  of  the  tendencies 
which  may  affect  the  future  of  the 
Orient;  and  he  speaks  especially  of  the 
Christian  attitude  toward  woman  as 
an  influence  upon  the  society  and  civili- 
zation of  Japan. 


Xlll 


THE  AWAKENING 
OF  JAPAN 


THE 

AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


I 

THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 

The  sudden  development  of  Japan 
has  been  more  or  less  of  an  enigma 
to  foreign  observers.  She  is  the  coun- 
try of  flowers  and  ironclads,  of  dash- 
ing heroism  and  delicate  tea-cups, — ^the 
strange  borderland  where  quaint  shad- 
ows cross  each  other  in  the  twilight 
of  the  New  and  the  Old  World.  Un- 
til recently  the  West  has  never  taken 
Japan  seriously.  It  is  amusing  to  And 
nowadays  that  such  success  as  we  have 
achieved  in  our  efforts  to  take  a place 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


among  the  family  of  nations  appears 
in  the  eyes  of  many  as  a menace  to 
Christendom.  In  the  mysterious  no- 
thing is  improbable.  Exaggeration  is 
the  courtesy  which  fancy  pays  to  the 
unknown.  What  sweeping  condem- 
nation, what  absurd  praise  has  not  the 
world  lavished  on  New  Japan?  We 
are  both  the  cherished  child  of  modern 
progress  and  a dread  resurrection  of 
heathendom — ^the  Yellow  Peril  itself! 

Has  not  the  West  as  much  to  un- 
learn about  the  East  as  the  East  has 
to  learn  about  the  West?  In  spite  of 
the  vast  sources  of  information  at  the 
command  of  the  West,  it  is  sad  to 
realize  to-day  how  many  misconcep- 
tions are  stiU  entertained  concerning 
us.  We  do  not  mean  to  allude  to  the 
unthinking  masses  who  are  still  domi- 
nated by  race  prejudice  and  that  vague 
4 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


hatred  of  the  Oriental  which  is  a relic 
from  the  days  of  the  crusades.  But 
even  the  comparatively  well-informed 
fail  to  recognize  the  inner  significance 
of  our  revival  and  the  real  goal  of  our 
aspirations.  It  may  be  that,  as  our 
problems  have  been  none  of  the  sim- 
plest, our  attitude  has  been  often  para- 
doxical. Perhaps  the  fact  that  the  his- 
tory of  East  Asiatic  civilization  is  still 
a sealed  book  to  the  Western  public 
may  account  for  the  great  variety  of 
opinions  held  by  the  outside  world  con- 
cerning our  present  conditions  and  fu- 
ture possibilities. 

Our  sympathizers  have  been  pleased 
to  marvel  at  the  facility  with  which  we 
have  introduced  Western  science  and 
industries,  constitutional  government, 
and  the  organization  necessary  for  car- 
rying on  a gigantic  war.  They  forget 
5 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


that  the  strength  of  the  movement 
which  brought  Japan  to  her  present 
position  is  due  not  less  to  the  innate 
virility  which  has  enabled  her  to  as- 
similate the  teachings  of  a foreign  civ- 
ilization than  to  her  capability  of 
adopting  its  methods.  With  a race, 
as  with  the  individual,  it  is  not  the  ac- 
cumulation of  extraneous  knowledge, 
but  the  realization  of  the  self  within, 
that  constitutes  true  progress. 

With  immense  gratitude  to  the  West 
for  what  she  has  taught  us,  we  must 
still  regard  Asia  as  the  true  source  of 
our  inspirations.  She  it  was  who  trans- 
mitted to  us  her  ancient  culture,  and 
planted  the  seed  of  our  regeneration. 
Our  joy  must  be  in  the  fact  that,  of  all 
her  children,  we  have  been  permitted 
to  prove  ourselves  worthy  of  the  in- 
heritance. Great  as  was  the  difficulty 
6 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


involved  in  the  struggle  for  a national 
reawakening,  a still  harder  task  con- 
fronted Japan  in  her  effort  to  bring  an 
Oriental  nation  to  face  the  terrible  ex- 
igencies of  modern  existence.  Until 
the  moment  when  we  shook  it  off,  the 
same  lethargy  lay  upon  us  which  now 
lies  on  China  and  India.  Over  our 
country  brooded  the  Night  of  Asia,  en- 
veloping all  spontaneity  within  its  mys- 
terious folds.  Intellectual  activity  and 
social  progress  became  stifled  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  apathy.  Rehgion  could 
but  soothe,  not  cure,  the  suffering  of 
the  wounded  soul.  The  weight  of  our 
burden  can  never  be  understood  with- 
out a knowledge  of  the  dark  back- 
ground from  which  we  emerged  to  the 
light. 

The  decadence  of  Asia  began  long 
ago  with  the  Mongol  conquest  in  the 
7 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


thirteenth  century.  The  classic  civil- 
izations of  China  and  India  shine  the 
brighter  by  contrast  with  the  night  that 
has  overtaken  them  since  that  disas- 
trous irruption.  The  children  of  the 
Hw^ang-ho  and  the  Ganges  had  from 
early  days  evolved  a culture  compara- 
ble with  that  of  the  era  of  highest  en- 
lightenment in  Greece  and  Rome,  one 
which  even  foreshadowed  the  trend  of 
advanced  thought  in  modern  Europe. 
Buddhism,  introduced  into  China  and 
the  farther  East  during  the  early  cen- 
turies of  the  Christian  era,  bound  to- 
gether the  Vedic  and  Confucian  ideals 
in  a single  web,  and  brought  about  the 
unification  of  Asia.  A vast  stream  of 
intercourse  flowed  throughout  the  ex- 
tent of  the  whole  Buddhaland.  Tidings 
of  any  fresh  philosophical  achievement 
in  the  University  of  Nalanda,^  or  in 

^ The  center  of  Buddhist  learning  in  Behar. 

8 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


the  monasteries  of  Kashmir^  were 
brought  by  pilgrims  and  wandering 
monks  to  the  thought-centers  of  China, 
Korea,  and  Japan.  Kingdoms  often  ex- 
changed courtesies,  while  peace  mar- 
ried art  to  art.  From  this  synthesis  of 
the  whole  Asiatic  life  a fresh  impetus 
was  given  to  each  nation.  It  is  curious 
to  note  that  each  effort  in  one  nation 
to  attain  a higher  expression  of  hu- 
manity is  marked  by  a simultaneous 
and  parallel  movement  in  the  other. 
That  liberalism  and  magnificence,  re- 
sulting in  the  worship  of  poetry  and 
harmony,  which,  in  the  sixth  century, 
so  characterized  the  reign  of  Vikra- 
maditya  in  India,  appear  equally  in 
the  glorious  age  of  the  Tang  emperors 
of  China  (618-907),  and  at  the  court 
of  our  contemporary  mikados  at  Nara. 
Again  the  movement  toward  individual- 
ism and  renationalization  which,  in  the 
9 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


eighth  century,  is  marked  in  India 
by  the  advent  of  Sankaracharya,  the 
apostle  of  Hinduism,  is  followed,  dur- 
ing the  Sung  dynasty  (960-1260) , by  a 
similar  activity  in  China,  culminating 
in  N'eo-Confucianism  and  the  recasting 
of  the  Zen  school^  of  Buddhism,  a 
phase  echoed  both  in  Japan  and  Korea. 
Thus,  while  Christendom  was  strug- 
gling with  medievalism,  the  Buddha- 
land  was  a great  garden  of  culture, 
where  each  flower  of  thought  bloomed 
in  individual  beauty. 

But,  alas!  the  Mongol  horsemen  un- 
der Jenghiz  Khan  were  to  lay  waste 
these  areas  of  civilization,  and  make  of 
them  a desert  like  that  out  of  which  they 
themselves  came.  It  was  not  the  first 
time  that  the  w^arriors  of  the  steppes 

^ Zen  is  the  sect  of  Buddhism  which  seeks  illumina- 
tion through  self-concentration.  It  corresponds  to 
the  Indian  Gnan. 


10 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


had  appeared  in  the  rich  valleys  of 
China  and  India.  The  Huns  and  the 
Scythians  had  often  succeeded  in  tem- 
porarily inflicting  their  rule  on  the 
borders  of  these  countries.  After  a 
time,  however,  they  were  either  driven 
out,  or  else  tamed  and  finally  absorbed 
in  the  peaceful  life  of  the  plain.  But 
this  last  Mongol  outburst  was  of  a 
magnitude  unequaled  in  the  past.  It 
was  destined  not  only  to  reach  the  Pa- 
cific and  the  Indian  Ocean,  but  to  cross 
the  Ural  and  overflow  Moscow.  The 
descendants  of  Jenghiz  Khan  in  China 
established  the  Yuen  dynasty  and 
reigned  at  Peking  from  1280  to  1368, 
while  their  cousins  began  a series  of 
attacks  on  India  which  ended  in  the 
empire  of  the  Grand  Moguls.  The 
Yuens  still  adhered  to  Buddhism, 
though  in  the  degenerate  form  known 
11 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


as  Lamaism;  but  the  Mogul  emper- 
ors of  Delhi,  who  came  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Mahmud  of  Ghazni,  had  em- 
braced the  Arabian  faith  as  they  sped 
on  their  path  of  conquest  through 
southern  Asia.  The  Moguls  not  only 
exterminated  Buddhism,  but  also  per- 
secuted Hinduism.  It  was  a terrible 
blow  to  Buddhaland  when  Islam  inter- 
posed a barrier  between  China  and 
India  greater  than  the  Himalayas 
themselves.  The  flow  of  intercourse, 
so  essential  to  human  progress,  was 
suddenly  stopped.  Our  own  time- 
honored  relations  with  our  continental 
neighbors  even  began  to  wane  after  the 
Mongol  conquerors  of  China  at- 
tempted to  invade  Japan  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  thirteenth  century,  forcing 
Korea  to  act  as  their  ally.  Their  bel- 
ligerent attitude  continued  for  nearly 
12 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


forty  years;  and  though,  thanks  to  our 
insular  position  and  the  prowess  of  our 
warriors,  we  were  able  successfully  to 
repel  their  attacks,  remembrance  of  their 
aggression  was  not  to  be  effaced,  and 
even  led  to  retaliatory  steps  on  our  part. 
The  memory  of  our  ancient  friend- 
ship with  the  courts  of  the  Tang  and 
Sung  dynasties  was  lost.  One  of  the 
latent  causes  of  our  late  war  with  the 
Celestial  Empire  may  be  found  in  the 
mutual  suspicion  with  which  the  two 
nations  have  now  regarded  each  other 
for  many  centuries.  By  the  ‘Mongol 
conquest  of  Asia,  Buddhaland  was  rent 
asunder,  never  again  to  be  reunited. 
How  little  do  the  Asiatic  nations  now 
know  of  each  other!  They  have  grown 
callous  to  the  doom  that  befalls  their 
neighbors. 

One  cannot  but  be  struck  by  the  con- 
13 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


trast  between  the  effect  of  the  Mongol 
outburst  on  Buddhaland  and  on  Chris- 
tendom. The  maritime  races  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Baltic,  by  their 
long  course  of  mutual  aggi^ession,  were 
well  equipped  to  cope  with  the  terrific 
onslaught  of  the  nomadic  invaders.  In 
spite  of  temporary  reverses,  Europe 
may  even  be  said  to  have  gained  some 
advantage  from  those  struggles  which 
were  so  disastrous  to  us  of  the  East. 
It  was  then  that  she  first  developed  that 
power  of  combination  which  makes  her 
so  formidable  to-day.  The  Mongol 
outburst,  v^hich  displaced  the  Turkish 
hordes  and  resulted  in  the  creation  of 
the  Saracenic  and  Ottoman  empires, 
gave  the  Frankish  nations  the  oppor- 
tunity of  uniting  against  a common 
enemy.  Before  the  walls  of  Jerusalem 
and  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  met  in 
U 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


comradeship,  once  and  forever,  the 
flower  of  Christian  chivalry,  and  there 
was  consolidated  a conception  of  Chris- 
tendom such  as  papal  Rome  could 
never  alone  have  brought  into  exis- 
tence. The  fall  of  Constantinople 
was  in  itself  one  of  the  chief  factors 
of  the  Italian  Renaissance. 

The  peaceful  and  self-contained  na- 
ture of  Eastern  civilization  has  been 
ever  weak  to  resist  foreign  aggression. 
We  have  not  only  permitted  the  Mon- 
gol to  destroy  the  unity  of  Asia,  but 
have  allowed  him  to  crush  the  life  of 
Indian  and  Chinese  culture.  From 
both  the  thrones  of  Peking  and  Delhi, 
the  descendants  of  Jenghiz  Khan  per- 
petuated a system  of  despotism  con- 
trary to  the  traditional  policies  of  the 
lands  they  had  subjugated.  Entire 
lack  of  sympathy  between  the  con- 
15 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


querors  and  the  conquered,  the  intro- 
duction of  an  alien  official  language, 
the  refusal  to  the  native  of  any  vital 
participation  in  administration,  toge- 
ther with  the  dreadful  clash  of  race- 
ideals  and  religious  beliefs,  all  com- 
bined to  produce  a mental  shock  and 
anguish  of  spirit  from  which  the  In- 
dians and  the  Chinese  have  never  re- 
covered. Such  scholarship  as  was  al- 
lowed to  survive,  was  confined  to  those 
servile  minds  who  submitted  meekly  to 
barbaric  patronage.  What  was  left 
of  original  intellectual  vigor  was  heard 
only  among  the  despairing  echoes  of 
the  forest,  or  in  the  savage  laughter  of 
the  bazaar.  Art  thenceforth  becomes 
either  ultra-conventional  or  else  bizarre 
and  grotesque. 

Attempts  to  overthrow  the  foreign 
yoke  were  not  lacking,  and  some  of 
16 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


them  were  even  successful.  But  the 
disintegration  of  the  national  con- 
sciousness under  alien  tyranny  made 
renationalization  almost  impossible, 
and  the  native  dynasties  were  unable  to 
withstand  fresh  waves  of  outside  ag- 
gression. In  China,  the  Ming  or 
Bright  dynasty,  which  wrested  the  gov- 
ernment from  the  Mongols  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  fourteenth  century,  soon  be- 
came a prey  to  internal  discords. 
Scarcely  had  the  destruction  attendant 
on  the  Mongol  reign  been  repaired, 
when,  near  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, a fresh  invasion  came  from  the 
north,  and  the  Manchus  tore  the  scep- 
ter from  the  native  rulers.  In  spite  of 
the  strenuous  efforts  made  by  the  wiser 
statesmen  of  this  new  dynasty,  no  com- 
plete fusion  of  the  Manchus  and  the 
Chinese  has  ever  been  accomplished. 

17 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


To-day  the  Celestial  Empire  is  so  di- 
vided against  itself  that  it  is  powerless 
to  repel  outside  attack.  Europe,  with 
her  iron  grasp  on  some  of  her  most  im- 
portant ports,  has  even  contemplated 
the  partition  of  the  whole  of  China.  So 
in  India  the  reactionary  uprising  of  the 
Mahrattas  and  the  Sildis  against  the 
Mohammedan  tyrants,  though  parti- 
ally successful,  did  not  crystallize  into 
a universal  expression  of  patriotism. 
This  lack  of  unity  enabled  a Western 
power  to  shape  her  destinies. 

Bereft  of  the  spirit  of  initiative,  tired 
of  impotent  revolts,  and  deprived  of  le- 
gitimate ambitions,  the  Chinese  and  the 
Indian  of  to-day  have  come  to  prostrate 
themselves  before  the  inevitable.  Some 
among  them  find  refuge  in  the  memory 
of  past  grandeur,  thus  hardening  the 
crust  of  tradition  and  exclusiveness; 

18 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


while  the  souls  of  others,  wafted  among 
ethereal  dreams,  seek  solace  in  an  ap- 
peal to  the  unknown.  The  Night  of 
Asia,  which  enshrouds  them,  is  not, 
perhaps,  without  its  own  subtle  beauty. 
It  reminds  us  of  the  deep  glorious 
nights  we  know  so  well  in  the  East, — 
listless  like  wonder,  serene  like  sadness, 
opalescent  like  love.  One  may  touch 
the  stars  behind  the  veil  where  man 
meets  spirit.  One  may  listen  to  the 
secret  cadence  of  nature  beyond  the 
border  where  sound  bows  to  silence. 

Japan,  who  had  proved  herself  equal 
to  the  task  of  repelling  the  Mongol 
invasion,  found  little  difficulty  in  re- 
sisting that  attempt  at  Western  en- 
croachment which,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  came  in  the 
form  of  the  Shimabara  Rebellion,  in- 
stigated by  the  Jesuits.  It  has  been 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


our  boast  that  no  foreign  conqueror 
ever  polluted  the  soil  of  Japan,  but 
these  attempts  at  aggression  from  the 
outside  hardened  our  insular  preju- 
dice into  a desire  for  complete  isolation 
from  the  rest  of  the  world.  Soon  after 
the  Jesuit  war  the  building  of  vessels 
large  enough  to  ride  the  high  seas  was 
forbidden,  and  no  one  was  allowed  to 
leave  our  shores.  Our  sole  point  of 
contact  with  the  outside  world  was  at 
the  port  of  Nagasaki,  where  the  Chi- 
nese and  the  Dutch  were  permitted, 
under  strict  surveillance,  to  carry  on 
trade.  For  the  space  of  nearly  two 
hundred  and  seventy  years  we  were  as 
one  buried  alive! 

Yet  a worse  fate  was  in  store  for  us. 
The  Tokugawa  shoguns,  who  brought 
about  this  remarkable  isolation  of 
Japan,  ruled  the  country  from  1600  to 
20 


THE  NIGHT  OF  ASIA 


1868,  and  threw  the  invisible  network 
of  their  tyranny  over  all  the  nation. 
From  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  all  were 
entangled  in  a subtle  web  of  mutual 
espionage,  and  every  element  of  indi- 
viduality was  crushed  under  the  weight 
of  unbending  formalism.  Deprived  of 
all  stimulus  from  without,  and  impris- 
oned within  our  own  island  realm,  we 
groped  amid  a maze  of  tradition.  Dark- 
est over  us  lay  the  Night  of  Asia. 


21 


II 


THE  CHRYSALIS 

The  Tokugawa  tyrants,  who  initia- 
ted the  policy  of  strict  seclusion, 
were  the  successors  of  various  hues  of 
shoguns  who,  as  military  regents  of  the 
Mikado,  had,  since  the  twelfth  century, 
usurped  the  government  of  Japan.  Be- 
fore that  period,  Japan  was  under  the 
personal  rule  of  the  Mikado,  who,  with 
the  assistance  of  court  functionaries, 
reigned  over  the  country  from  Kioto. 
The  over-centralization  of  the  imperial 
bureaucracy,  however,  was  the  cause  of 
its  own  decay.  Its  neglect  of  provin- 
cial administration  led  to  local  disturb- 
ances and  the  creation  of  baronial  es- 
22 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


tates,  over  which  the  Kioto  court  exer- 
cised no  active  control.  The  real  au- 
thority thus  came  into  the  hands  of  the 
strongest  baronial  power,  whose  repre- 
sentative, vested  by  the  Mikado  with 
the  title  of  shogun,  or  commander-in- 
chief, ruled  the  country  as  regent,  the 
Mikado  retaining  but  a nominal  sov- 
ereignty over  the  empire. 

The  first,  or  Kamakura,  shogunate, 
so  called  from  the  city  which  its  repre- 
sentatives made  their  capital,  exercised 
the  powers  of  government  from  1186 
to  1333.  This  was  followed  by  a tem- 
porary restitution  of  power  to  the  Mi- 
kado ; but  the  reins  of  government  soon 
fell  into  the  hands  of  another  line 
of  shoguns,  the  Ashikaga,  who  from 
1336  to  1573  ruled  the  country  from 
Kioto  itself.  The  fall  of  the  Ashikaga 
shogunate  was  followed  by  a long  period 
23 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


of  civil  war,  during  which  the  various 
great  barons  struggled  for  supremacy. 
Out  of  this  state  of  turmoil  arose  that 
Napoleonic  genius,  Taiko  Hideyoshi, 
who,  born  a peasant,  died,  in  1598,  the 
master  of  unified  Japan.  His  son  was, 
however,  unable  to  retain  the  authority 
left  him  by  his  father,  and  the  dic- 
tatorship of  the  empire  devolved,  in 
1600,  on  lyeyasu,  the  first  of  the  To- 
kugawa  shoguns. 

The  Tokugawa  shogunate  differed 
from  those  preceding  it  in  that  it  was 
virtually  a monarchy,  despite  its  ap- 
parent feudalistic  form.  Even  under 
the  great  Taiko,  the  government  of  the 
country  was  conducted  by  a council 
composed  of  five  of  the  most  powerful 
barons,  but  under  the  Tokugawa  re- 
gime it  became  purely  autocratic.  lye- 
yasu framed  for  his  descendants  a 
24 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


course  of  policy  which  enabled  them  to 
retain  their  rule  through  fourteen 
generations,  until  the  recent  restoration 
of  the  Mikado  in  1868.  He  not  merely 
curtailed  the  powxr  of  the  barons  until 
they  were  such  only  in  name,  but 
erected  safeguards  against  every  pos- 
sible source  of  danger  to  his  dynasty. 
He  not  only  cut  us  off  from  all  outside 
intercourse,  but  so  separated  the  difF er- 
ent  classes  of  society,  that  the  idea  of 
national  unity  became  completely  lost. 
The  subtleness  of  his  machinations  is 
manifest  not  less  in  his  elaborate 
scheme  for  maintaining  military  ascen- 
dancy than  in  the  way  in  which  he  took 
advantage  of  our  own  idiosyncrasies 
and  secret  vanities  to  disarm  all  oppo- 
sition to  his  rule.  In  order  that  he 
might  yoke  us  um^esistingly  to  the  car 
of  routine,  he  soothed  our  feelings  and 
25 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


delighted  our  souls  by  appeals  to  that 
love  and  worship  for  the  past  that  is  one 
of  our  national  instincts.  Our  bonds 
were,  in  fact,  largely  of  our  own 
weaving,  and  lyeyasu  but  lulled  us  to 
sleep,  unmindful  of  the  future,  within 
the  chrysalis  of  tradition.  Perhaps 
it  is  for  this,  that  he  knew  us 
only  too  well,  we  execrate  his  memory 
to-day. 

The  mechanism  of  the  Tokugawa 
rule  cannot  be  adequately  described  in 
brief;  not  only  is  it  exceedingly  com- 
plicated, but  it  is  without  striking  par- 
allel in  the  history  of  any  country.  It 
affords  the  peculiar  spectacle  of  a so- 
ciety perfectly  isolated  and  self-com- 
plete, which,  acting  and  reacting  upon 
itself,  produced  worlds  within  worlds, 
each  with  its  separate  life  and  ideals, 
and  its  own  distinct  expressions  in  art 
26 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


and  literature.  It  exhibits  all  the  sub- 
tleness of  European  class  distinction, 
plus  the  element  of  caste  as  understood 
in  India.  We  can  here  but  indicate  its 
main  phases. 

First,  over  all  was  the  Mikado.  That 
sacred  conception  is  the  thought-in- 
heritance of  Japan  from  her  very  be- 
ginning. Mythology  has  consecrated  it, 
history  has  endeared  it,  and  poetry  has 
idealized  it.  Buddhism  has  enriched 
it  with  that  reverence  which  India  pays 
to  the  “Protector  of  the  Law,”  and 
Confucianism  has  confirmed  it  with  the 
loyalty  which  China  offers  to  the  “ Son 
of  Heaven.”  The  Mikado  may  cease 
to  govern,  but  he  always  reigns.  He  ex- 
ists not  by  divine  right,  but  by  divine 
law, — a fact  of  man  and  nature.  He  is 
always  there,  like  our  beloved  mountain 
of  Fuji,  which  stands  eternally  in  silent 
27 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


beauty,  or  like  the  glorious  sea  which 
forever  washes  our  shore. 

We  must  remember,  however,  that 
the  political  significance  of  the  JMikado 
has  not  always  been  the  same.  As  we 
are  often  unconscious  of  the  every-day 
facts  of  nature,  because  of  their  un- 
questioned existence,  so  we  became  un- 
conscious of  the  Mikado,  and  basked 
in  the  daylight,  unmindful  of  the  sun 
above.  Clouds  of  successive  usurpa- 
tions long  obscured  the  heavens,  so  that 
devotion  to  the  Solar  Throne  became 
a distant  though  never  entirely  forgot- 
ten homage.  By  the  sixteenth  century, 
when  lyeyasu  assumed  the  shogunate 
and  became  in  reality  absolute  mon- 
arch of  Japan,  all  memory  of  the  per- 
sonal rule  of  the  Mikado  had  been  lost 
for  four  long  centuries.  The  Mikado’s 
court  at  Kioto,  the  former  capital  of 
28 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


the  imperial  government,  was  still  ex- 
istent, owing  to  its  past  prestige,  but  it 
was  only  a faint  reflection  of  its  former 
glory. 

The  great  genius  of  lyeyasu  is  ap- 
parent in  his  full  recognition  of  the 
Mikado  in  the  national  scheme.  In 
strong  contrast  to  the  arrogance  and 
utter  neglect  which  the  preceding  sho- 
guns displayed  toward  the  court,  he 
spared  no  effort  to  show  his  respect. 
He  augmented  the  imperial  revenues, 
invited  the  daimios  (feudal  lords)  to 
participate  in  rebuilding  the  imperial 
palace,  restored  the  court  ceremonial 
and  etiquette,  and  was  unceasing  in  his 
ministrations  to  the  welfare  of  the  im- 
perial household.  He  even  started  the 
unprecedented  ceremony  of  the  sho- 
gun paying  personal  homage  to  the 
throne,  and  a brilliant  pageant  yearly 
29 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


passed  from  his  castle  of  Yedo  (now 
known  as  Tokio),  dazzling  the  de- 
lighted eyes  of  the  populace  as  it 
wended  its  way  slowly  toward  Kioto. 
All  this  was  flattering  to  the  national 
love  of  tradition.  It  was  considered 
as  heralding  the  advent  of  the  mil- 
lennium. 

But  behind  this  appearance  of  loy- 
alty to  the  throne  lay  hidden  the  sub- 
tlest snares  of  the  Tokugawas.  If 
they  recognized  the  necessity  of  the  im- 
perial cult,  they  determined  that  they 
alone  should  be  its  high-priests,  and  that 
others  should  worship  at  a respectful 
distance.  In  the  name  of  sanctity,  the 
Kioto  court  was  deprived  of  those  last 
remnants  of  political  authority  which 
former  regencies  had  suffered  it  to  re- 
tain. A strong  garrison  was  stationed 
in  Kioto,  ostensibly  for  the  protection 
30 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


of  the  palace,  but  its  members  were  cho- 
sen from  the  tried  body-guard  of  the 
Tokugawas  themselves.  They  contin- 
ued to  invite  one  of  the  imperial  princes 
to  take  the  monastic  vows  and  reside  in 
Yedo  as  lord  abbot  of  the  Uyeno  tem- 
ple, by  which  means  they  always  virtu- 
ally held  at  their  capital  a hostage  from 
the  Kioto  court.  No  daimio  was  al- 
lowed to  seek  audience  of  the  Mikado 
without  their  consent. 

The  Mikado,  unseen  and  unheard, 
commanded  a mysterious  awe.  His 
palace  now  became  the  “Forbidden  In- 
terior ” in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word. 
The  ancient  political  significance  of  the 
court  was  lost  in  a semi-religious  con- 
ception. No  wonder  that  the  Western- 
ers who  first  visited  our  country  wrote 
that  there  were  two  rulers  in  Japan, 
the  temporal  in  Yedo,  and  the  spiri- 
31 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


tual  in  Kioto.  In  spite  of  the  constant 
loyalty  which  our  forefathers  expressed 
for  the  Mikado  in  Tokugawa  days, 
they  had  none  of  the  fiery  enthusiasm 
which  inspires  us  to-day.  With  them  it 
was  symbolism;  with  us  it  is  a living 
reality. 

Next  to  the  Mikado,  and  foremost 
in  social  rank  (the  imperial  line  being 
considered  above  all  class  distinctions), 
came  the  kuges,  or  court  aristocracy 
of  Kioto.  The  exalted  position  which 
they  held  in  society  arose  from  their 
association  with  the  Mikado.  From 
their  position  near  the  throne,  they  were 
called  poetically  the  Friends  of  the 
Moon  and  Guests  of  the  Cloud.  Their 
fortunes  waxed  and  waned  with  those 
of  the  imperial  household,  to  which, 
regardless  of  the  immense  political 
changes  that  have  come  over  Japan 
32 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


since  the  days  when  they  actively  par- 
ticipated in  the  conduct  of  the  empire, 
they  have  ever  remained  faithful. 
Herein  again  lies  another  remarkable 
example  of  that  obstinate  tenacity 
which  makes  the  Japanese  race  pre- 
serve the  old  while  it  welcomes  the  new. 

The  kuges  were  the  successors  of 
those  princely  bureaucrats  who  par- 
ticipated in  the  imperial  rule  from  the 
year  645  to  1166.  The  old  system  of 
government,  together  with  its  social 
customs  and  art  expressions,  was  based 
mainly  on  that  of  the  Tang  dynasty 
of  China.  The  kuges  have  always  re- 
mained guardians  of  its  ideals.  While 
China  was  trying  one  policy  after  an- 
other, and  Japan  herself  was  passing 
through  various  different  phases  of 
feudalism  toward  the  monarchism  of 
the  Tokugawas,  the  kuges  continued 
33 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


to  live  the  life  which  preceded  the 
twelfth  century.  Their  costumes  were 
of  the  eleventh,  their  etiquette  of  the 
tenth  century.  They  read  Chinese  with 
the  intonation  of  the  Tang  period, 
and  danced  to  the  classic  measure  of 
the  Bugaku  music,  the  inheritance  of 
an  era  preceding  the  ninth  century. 
They  delighted  in  the  purism  of  the 
Fujiwara  poetry,  and  affected  the 
technic  of  the  ancient  school  of  paint- 
ing. It  is  to  their  devotion  to  the 
past  that  we  owe  the  preservation  of 
the  Kharma-kanda  (ritualistic  obser- 
vances) of  India  and  the  early  Buddhist 
doctrines  of  China. 

The  Tokugawa  government  hu- 
mored and  honored  the  court  nobles  be- 
cause of  their  association  with  the  Mi- 
kado and  the  place  they  occupied  in  the 
history  of  the  nation.  The  kuges  were 
given  precedence  over  the  daimios,  and 
31 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


their  incomes,  if  not  greatly  increased, 
were  at  least  assured  to  them.  This 
last  must  have  been  gratifying  to  those 
of  them  who  remembered  the  disastrous 
days  when  they  had  to  sell  autograph 
poems  for  their  sustenance.  They  were 
contented,  and  the  Tokugawas  kept 
them  well  disposed  toward  themselves 
by  intermarriage  and  timely  financial 
aid.  All  political  power,  however,  was 
completely  taken  from  the  kuges,  not- 
withstanding the  high-sounding  titles 
which  they  were  still  allowed  to  retain. 
The  duty  of  the  privy  councilor  would 
consist  in  debating  on  the  merits  of  a 
love-ditty,  and  that  of  the  high  min- 
ister of  state  in  presiding  over  a com- 
petition of  nightingales.  It  was  in 
those  days  of  refined  folly  that  the 
queen  in  our  game  of  chess  was  sol- 
emnly abolished  by  imperial  command. 

Theoretically,  next  to  the  court  no- 
35 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


bility  of  Kioto  in  social  position,  but 
actually  far  prouder  and  more  power- 
ful, came  the  daimios,  or  feudal  lords 
(literally  grandees),  nearly  three  hun- 
dred in  number.  These  were  divided 
into  classes — the  Tozama  daimios,  who 
were  the  descendants  of  the  barons  of 
former  days,  and  the  daimios  of  recent 
creation,  who  had  been  ennobled  by  the 
Tokugaw^as,  either  for  their  services, 
or  because  they  traced  their  lineage 
to  some  member  of  that  family.  In  the 
early  days  of  Tokugawa  rule,  the  To- 
zama daimios  were  a source  of  great 
danger,  as  their  ancient  warlike  spirit 
remained  as  yet  untamed.  The  meth- 
ods that  lyeyasu  and  his  successors  em- 
ployed in  maintaining  military  ascen- 
dancy, and  in  generally  bringing  the 
daimios  under  absolute  control,  are  a 
study  in  themselves.  Any  map  of  J apan 
36 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


in  the  early  days  of  the  Tokugawas  will 
show  the  feudatory  provinces  so  dis- 
tributed that  all  political  combination 
between  them  was  rendered  impossible. 
On  such  a map  we  will  find  the  daimi- 
ates  of  Tokugawa  creation,  which  were 
constantly  being  augmented  in  size  and 
strength,  wedged  in  between  the  earlier 
daimiates.  Gradually  all  strategical 
points  on  the  main  roads  of  communi- 
cation throughout  the  country  were 
taken  from  the  Tozama  daimios,  and 
either  held  by  the  shogun  himself  or  put 
into  the  hands  of  his  minions.  The 
practice  of  assembling  the  daimios  at 
Yedo  to  sit  in  conference  over  ques- 
tions of  territorial  rights  soon  led  to  the 
inauguration  of  a system  by  which  each 
daimio  was  obliged  to  leave  his  terri- 
tory every  alternate  year  and  pay  per- 
sonal homage  to  the  shogun,  while  his 
37 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


family  were  required  to  reside  perma- 
nently at  the  capital  as  hostages.  In 
this  manner  the  greater  part  of  such 
time  as  the  daimios  were  not  under  im- 
mediate control  of  the  shogun  was  con- 
sumed in  journeying  to  and  from  their 
provinces,  so  that  but  little  opportunity 
was  given  them  to  form  or  carry  out 
conspiracies  against  the  government. 
The  newly  enacted  law  of  inheritance 
demanded  the  approval  of  the  govern- 
ment in  each  case  of  succession  to  the 
daimiates,  and  also  in  all  cases  of  mar- 
riage. A constant  drain  was  main- 
tained on  their  feudatory  income  by 
inviting  the  daimios  to  assist  in  repair- 
ing the  imperial  palace,  and  in  other 
public  works.  Jealousy  and  rivalry 
were  encouraged  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  resulted  in  a lamentable  condition 
of  mutual  distrust  and  espionage. 

38 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


Those  Tozama  daimios  who  revolted 
against  this  state  of  things  soon  found 
out  their  impotence,  and  were  inva- 
riably punished  by  the  diminution, 
transference,  or  confiscation  of  their 
territorial  possessions, — the  latter  pen- 
alty attended  with  death.  They  were 
taught  to  realize  that  the  government 
of  the  country,  though  still  feudal  in 
form,  had  become  in  reality  an  absolute 
monarchy, — patriarchal  and  benevo- 
lent, but  thoroughly  despotic.  They 
soon  found  that  their  smallest  actions 
were  watched  with  unceasing  vigilance, 
so  that  they  began  to  be  distrust- 
ful of  even  their  own  retainers.  This 
vigorous  surveillance  was  not  confined 
to  the  Tozama  daimios  alone.  Dread- 
ing the  combination  of  administrative 
power  with  hereditary  influence,  the 
Tokugawas  invariably  chose  their  cab- 
39 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


inet  ministers  from  among  the  smaller 
daimios  of  their  own  creation.  The 
powerful  members  of  their  own  aristoc- 
racy were  watched  as  strictly  as  were 
the  Tozama  lords,  a fact  which  ex- 
plains why  all  the  daimios  were  so  luke- 
warm in  their  sympathy  toward  the 
Tokugawa  government  during  the 
struggles  of  the  Restoration. 

Below  the  daimios  came  the  samu- 
rai, or  sworded  gentry,  four  hundred 
thousand  strong.  They  served  either 
immediately  under  the  shogun  himself, 
or  else  under  the  banners  of  the  various 
daimios.  Their  appointments  were 
hereditary,  and  their  blood  was  kept 
pure  by  the  prohibition  of  all  marriage 
with  the  lower  classes,  except  in  case 
of  the  foot-soldiers,  who  constituted  the 
lowest  rank  of  samurai.  They  had  the 
right  and  obligation  of  wearing  two 
40 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


swords  and  bearing  family  crests. 
Within  their  awn  ranks  were  many 
class  distinctions,  each  with  its  special 
privileges.  The  estates  of  high-class 
samurai  were  often  wider  and  richer 
than  those  of  the  smaller  daimios.  Un- 
der the  code  of  the  samurai,  however, 
all  enjoyed  that  equality  that  belongs 
to  comi’adeship  in  arms;  and  even  as  a 
king  of  England  or  France  delighted 
in  the  title  of  first  gentleman  of  the 
land,  so  the  shogun  considered  himself 
first  samurai  of  the  empire. 

But  with  the  advent  of  the  Toku- 
gawa  regime  the  existence  of  the  dai- 
mio  and  the  samurai,  like  that  of  the 
court  aristocracy  of  Kioto,  became  an 
anachronism.  The  samurai,  a product 
of  the  feudal  period  intervening  be- 
tween the  fall  of  the  imperial  bureau- 
cracy in  the  twelfth  century  and  the 
41 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


rise  of  the  Tokugawa  monarchy  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  clung  with  singu- 
lar tenacity  to  their  past  ideals.  Their 
art  was  that  of  the  Kano  school,  a re- 
flection of  the  fifteenth  century.  Their 
music  and  drama  w^re  the  No^  the  six- 
teenth-century opera  of  Japan.  Their 
costumes,  architecture,  and  language 
retained  the  style  of  the  time  imme- 
diately preceding  the  Tokugawa  pe- 
riod. Their  religion  followed  those 
Zen  doctrines  which  had  been  the  vital 
inspiration  of  the  feudal  age.  In  fact, 
the  whole  code  of  the  samurai  was 
an  heirloom  left  to  them  by  the  Kama- 
kura and  Ashikaga  knights,  in  w^hose 
days  the  whole  nation  w as  a camp. 

lyeyasu,  accepting  Japan  as  it  was, 
and  utilizing  its  idiosyncrasies,  kept  the 
military  class  quiet  through  its  own 
love  of  hereditary  conventions  and 
42 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


military  obedience.  Everything  was 
regulated  by  precedent  and  routine. 
The  son  of  a samurai  or  a daimio  fol- 
lowed exactly  in  the  footsteps  of  his 
father,  and  dreamed  of  no  change.  By 
giving  the  samurai  a Confucian  educa- 
tion, the  Tokugawas  both  pacified  his 
warlike  instincts  and  encouraged  his 
worship  of  tradition.  The  blessing  of 
that  rule  which  they  termed  the  Great 
Peace  of  Tokugawa  was  so  constantly 
dinned  into  his  ears  that  he  hoped  and 
believed  that  it  would  be  everlasting. 

The  life  of  a Tokugawa  daimio  or 
samurai  was  not  devoid  of  amusements. 
Besides  his  fencing-bouts  and  jiujitsu 
matches,  his  falconry  and  games  of 
archery,  he  had  his  rzo-dances,  his  tea- 
ceremonies,  and  those  interminable 
banquets  at  which  he  would  recount  the 
exploits  of  his  ancestors.  Moreover, 
43 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


much  time  might  be  consumed  in  the 
composition  of  bad  Chinese  poems  be- 
neath the  cherry-trees.  He  was  often 
wealthy  and  always  extravagant,  for 
his  contempt  for  gold  was  ingrained. 
He  would  squander  a fortune  for  a 
rare  Sung  vase  or  a Masamune  blade. 
The  marvelous  workmanship  of  the 
Gotos  in  metal,  and  of  the  Komas  in 
gold  lacquer  was  the  result  of  his  pa- 
tronage. It  is  to  the  disappearance  of 
the  daimio  and  the  samurai  that  Japan 
owes  her  sudden  fall  of  standard  in  ar- 
tistic taste. 

Such  samurai  as  had  been  thrown 
out  of  employment  either  through  dis- 
missal by  their  lord  or  the  extinction  of 
the  daimiate  under  which  they  served, 
were  called  ronin  (the  unattached). 
Sometimes  a second  son,  with  literary 
talents  or  scholastic  ambitions,  became 
44* 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


a ronin,  and  supported  himself  by  teach- 
ing. The  ronins  retained  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  samurai,  while 
their  state  of  independence  gave  them 
an  individuality  and  freedom  of 
thought  unknown  among  their  more 
orthodox  brethren.  It  was  through  the 
ronin  scholars  that  the  first  message  of 
the  Restoration  was  to  be  announced  to 
the  nation. 

Fourth  in  the  social  scale  came  the 
commoners,  ranked  in  the  order  of 
farmers,  artisans,  and  traders.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  rise  of  European  mon- 
archies the  populace  ever  came  to  the 
help  of  the  sovereign  against  the  no- 
bles, so  in  Japan  the  Tokugawas 
found  in  the  commoners  their  best  al- 
lies against  the  daimios,  and  conse- 
quently granted  them  many  privileges 
hitherto  unknown.  Then  life  and  prop- 
45 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


erty  of  the  masses  found  a security  un- 
precedented in  the  days  of  the  preda- 
tory barons.  Within  a limited  sphere, 
they  were  even  allowed  to  develop  self- 
government.  Industry  and  commerce 
flourished  unmolested.  Agriculture 
was  specially  encouraged,  as  rice  was 
the  medium  in  which  the  revenues  of 
the  government  were  taken.  It  is  to 
the  commoners  that  we  owe  the  arts  and 
crafts  which  have  made  Japan  famous. 
It  is  to  them  that  we  are  indebted  for 
our  modern  drama  and  popular  litera- 
ture, the  color-prints  of  Torii  and  Ho- 
kusai. 

Toward  the  commoners  also,  how- 
ever, the  Tokugawas  pursued  their 
policy  of  segregation,  inclosing  them 
by  barriers  of  tradition  within  a sepa- 
rate compartment  of  their  social  struc- 
ture. They  were  welcome  to  their  spe- 
46 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


cial  vocations  and  amusements,  but 
they  were  forbidden  to  trespass  on 
what  belonged  to  the  higher  orders. 
They  were  not  allowed  to  wear  family 
crests,  or  even  to  bear  surnames.  They 
could  have  their  theater,  with  its  line 
of  dangiuros  (actors),  but  might  not 
indulge  in  the  Tio-music  of  the  samurai, 
or  the  classic  dance  of  the  Kioto  no- 
bility. 

As  a precaution  against  an  uprising, 
all  the  commoners  were  disarmed.  An 
immense  body  of  secret  police  was  em- 
ployed to  watch  their  movements,  and 
any  breath  of  discontent  met  with  se- 
vere punishment.  Silent  fear  haunted 
them,  for  all  the  walls  seemed  to  have 
grown  ears.  Theirs  it  was  to  work  and 
obey,  and  not  to  question.  However 
rich  or  accomplished,  commoners  born 
must  die  commoners.  Hemmed  in  by 
47 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


inexorable  customs  and  restrictions, 
their  energy  had  to  vent  itself  either 
through  the  frivolity  of  life  or  the  sad- 
ness of  religion.  Can  we  wonder  that 
to  the  more  serious  commoners  religion 
consisted  in  an  appeal  to  the  infinite 
mercy  of  Amitaba  for  absorption  in 
that  divine  love,  the  expression  of 
which  is  so  marked  in  the  Bhaktas  of 
India?  Can  we  blame  the  weaker  and 
more  frivolous  among  them  for  seeking 
forgetfulness  in  the  idealization  of 
folly? 

Below  the  commoners,  and,  in  fact, 
ostracized  entirely  from  the  social 
scheme,  were  the  outcasts  known  as 
Yettas.  They  were  the  descendants  of 
criminals,  who,  in  early  times,  were  not 
allowed  to  intermarry  with  other  fam- 
ilies, and  so  formed  a distinct  caste  by 
themselves.  Some  of  them  became 
48 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


quite  wealthy,  owing  to  their  posses- 
sion of  a monopoly  in  the  handling  of 
leather  and  hide,  an  occupation  consid- 
ered unclean,  according  to  the  Bud- 
dhist canons.  It  was  from  their  ranks 
that  the  public  executioners  were  ap- 
pointed. Before  the  Restoration,  when 
all  men  were  made  equal  in  the  eye  of 
the  law,  any  contact  with  this  class  was 
considered  a pollution. 

The  national  consciousness,  divided 
within  itself  by  the  dams  and  dikes  of 
its  own  conventions,  could  but  narrow 
and  finally  stagnate.  The  fiow  of 
spontaneity  ceased  with  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  microscopic 
tendency  of  later  Oriental  thought  be- 
came in  us  accentuated  to  a degree  un- 
known even  in  China.  Our  life  grew  to 
be  like  those  miniature  and  dwarf  trees 
that  were  typical  products  of  the  Toku- 
49 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


gawa  age.  Only  in  art  and  litera- 
ture, essentially  the  world  of  freedom, 
some  vitality  is  to  be  found.  The 
self-concentration  of  a nation  during 
that  period  has  given  a peculiar  charm 
to  Japanese  art.  The  worship  of  tra- 
ditions, which  is  the  foundation  of  style 
and  elegance,  has  given  a subtle  re- 
finement to  all  its  expressions.  Yet 
this  very  classicism  was  the  enemy  of 
the  romanticist  efforts,  for  true  indi- 
viduality was  subdued  under  the  gen- 
eral trend  of  formalism.  Again,  the 
demarcation  of  social  life  and  ideals 
prevented  any  creative  mind  from  mir- 
roring the  whole  of  national  loves  and 
aspirations.  Despite  a certain  clever- 
ness in  details,  or  an  occasional  dash  of 
wild  fancy,  no  painter  of  the  caliber  of 
Korin,^  or  poet  with  the  strength  of 

^ Korin,  a great  colorist  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

50 


THE  CHRYSALIS 


Chikamatsu/  is  to  be  found.  Some, 
like  beautiful  pools,  may  reflect  the 
shadows  of  contemporary  thought ; but 
in  not  one  do  we  get  a vision  of  the 
limitless  ocean  of  the  ideal. 

Yet  the  hibernation  of  Japan  within 
her  chrysalis  must  have  been  pleasant 
in  itself,  or  the  nation  would  not  have 
slumbered  so  long.  Old  folks  are  still 
to  be  found  who  cherish  the  memory 
of  those  days  of  leisure,  when  no  one 
was  so  vulgar  as  to  think  for  himself, 
when  life  was  elegant,  if  it  was  formal. 
There  were  always  chances  of  being 
exquisitely  foolish,  if  one  was  wise 
enough  to  avail  himself  of  them.  Said 
Kampici,  the  Chinese  Machiavelli,  in 
telling  the  secret  of  absolutism  twenty- 
two  centuries  ago:  “Amuse  them,  tire 
them  not,  let  them  not  know.”  lye- 

^Chikamatsu,  his  contemporary,  the  Japanese 
Shakspere. 

51 


5 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


yasu,  a past  master  of  craft,  followed 
these  injunctions  but  too  faithfully. 
We  were  amused,  we  cared  not  for 
change,  we  did  not  seek  to  know. 


52 


Ill 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 

SOME  critics  see  in  the  encourage- 
ment given  to  learning  that  flaw 
in  the  Tokugawa  system  of  govern- 
ment which  caused  its  ultimate  down- 
fall. Under  the  regime  inaugurated 
by  lyeyasu  every  child  in  the  empire 
was  obliged  to  learn  to  read  and  write, 
under  the  instruction  of  the  local 
priests,  thus  giving  a certain  amount  of 
education  to  even  the  meanest  peasant, 
while  innumerable  academies  were  es- 
tabhshed  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  It  is  doubtless 
true  that  the  result  of  these  measures 
was  to  prepare  the  national  mind  for 
53 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


receiving  the  message  of  the  Restora- 
tion. Yet,  when  we  come  to  examine 
into  the  nature  of  the  instruction  so 
freely  given  to  the  people  by  the  To- 
kugawas,  we  shall  find  that  perhaps 
lyeyasu  and  his  immediate  successors 
were  not  so  far  amiss  in  their  calcu- 
lations, after  all. 

All  branches  of  knowledge  are  inter- 
esting, hut  some  courses  of  study  tend 
to  encourage  ignorance,  and  such  were 
the  courses  in  Buddhism  and  Confu- 
cianism which  formed  the  sole  curricu- 
lum in  the  Tokugawa  academies.  To 
those  who  have  seen  our  landscapes 
studded  with  pagodas,  and  heard  our 
temple  bells  calling  from  every  hill,  or 
to  those  who  remember  the  great  halls 
of  learning  in  the  various  daimiates, 
and  the  chant  of  reciting  voices  in 
every  Tokugawa  village,  it  must  seem 
54 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


strange  that  Buddhism  and  Confucian- 
ism played  so  small  a part  in  the  Res- 
toration. The  fact  is  that  their  teach- 
ings never  interfered  in  matters  of 
state,  and  their  influence  was  solely 
directed  toward  enforcing  ideas  of  sub- 
mission and  the  love  of  peace. 

We  do  not  agree  with  those  enemies 
of  lyeyasu  who  accuse  him  of  being 
a skeptic  and  utilizing  ethics  and  re- 
ligion only  as  a means  to  further  his 
own  ends.  He  was  a great  statesman 
who  combined  many  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  CromweU  and  Richelieu.  He 
was  sincere,  and  acted,  according  to  his 
lights,  for  what  he  considered  the  best 
interests  of  the  nation.  The  following 
instance  of  his  humanity  is  enough  to 
refute  those  charges  of  heartlessness 
which  have  been  brought  against  him. 
N'oticing,  during  one  of  his  campaigns, 
55 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


that  the  enemy  were  using  loose-shafted 
arrows,  the  heads  of  which  remained 
in  the  wound  and  caused  a cruel  and 
lingering  death,  he  gave  orders  that  all 
the  Tokugawa  arrowheads  should  be 
securely  fastened  and  lacquered  to  the 
shafts.  We  believe,  however,  that  the 
“Old  Badger,”  as  he  is  often  nick- 
named, knew  full  well  the  nature  of 
Buddhist  and  Confucian  teaching,  and 
that  his  astuteness  and  knowledge  of 
men  did  not  fail  to  recognize  the  bear- 
ing which  the  Oriental  philosophy  of 
his  day  might  have  upon  the  further- 
ance of  his  system  of  government. 

Buddhism  was  never  a menace  to  the 
state.  The  reason  for  this  lies  far  back 
in  the  antithesis  of  the  Oriental  con- 
ception of  the  social  and  supersocial 
order.  By  that  antithesis  the  ethical 
life  of  the  householder  is  distinguished 
56 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


from  the  religious  life  of  the  wander- 
ing recluse,  the  two  standing  in  con- 
trast, though  not  necessarily  antagonis- 
tic. Eastern  society,  with  all  its  beauty 
of  harmonized  duties  and  intercalated 
occupations,  is  based  on  mutual  depen- 
dencies, and  at  best  can  but  end  in  con- 
ventionalism— ^the  moral  bondage  of 
the  commune.  Religion,  on  the  other 
hand,  furnishes  the  means  of  true 
emancipation,  and  constitutes  the  acme 
of  individualism.  The  ideal  monk  is 
the  child  of  freedom,  who,  dying  to  the 
mundane,  is  reborn  to  the  realm  of  the 
spirit.  He  is  like  the  lotus  which  rises 
in  purity  above  the  mire.  He  is  silent, 
like  the  forest  in  which  he  meditates; 
untrammeled,  like  the  wind  that  blows 
his  gown  around  him.  He  is  of  no 
caste  and  no  country.  What  if  thrones 
are  overthrown  and  nations  enslaved: 
57 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


did  not  Buddha,  the  great  teacher  of  re- 
nunciation, watch  with  undimmed  eyes 
the  total  annihilation  of  his  own  kingly 
race? 

Society,  the  world  of  tradition  and 
ethics,  looked  with  respect  on  the  world 
of  freedom,  and  gazed  with  wonder  at 
the  achievements  of  the  spiritual  work- 
ers who  left  behind  them  the  boundary 
lines  of  school  and  sect  as  they  trav- 
eled through  the  regions  of  the  unex- 
plored toward  the  light.  Chinese  man- 
darins dreamed,  amid  palatial  luxuries, 
of  the  bamboo  forest,  and  sighed  at  the 
call  of  the  pine-clad  hills.  The  highest 
desire  of  an  Indian  or  Japanese  house- 
holder was  to  reach  the  age  at  which, 
leaving  worldly  cares  to  his  children, 
he  might  learn  that  higher  life  of  a re- 
cluse known  as  Banaprasta  or  Inkyo. 
In  donning  the  monkish  robe,  a priv- 
58 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


ilege  open  to  all,  he  found  release  from 
the  world  of  convention.  It  was  in 
order  to  escape  from  social  trammels 
that  our  artists  shaved  their  heads  and 
assumed  the  guise  of  priests. 

But  the  social  and  the  supersocial 
worlds  never  clashed,  for  each  was  the 
counterpart  of  the  other.  In  Indian 
society  we  find  the  Shramanic  as  the 
necessary  counterbalance  to  the  Brah- 
manic  ideal,  while  in  China  the  same 
positions  are  held  by  Taoism  and  Con- 
fucianism. Herein  lies  the  secret  of 
that  toleration  which  has  made  of  In- 
dia a museum  of  religions,  and  has 
caused  China  to  welcome,  so  long  as 
they  do  not  interfere  with  her  political 
system,  the  alien  faiths  of  Buddhism, 
Zoroastrianism,  Nestorianism,  Mo- 
hammedanism, and  modern  Christian- 
ity. The  existence  of  this  twofold 
59 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


development  also  explains,  in  a certain 
measure,  that  attitude  of  liberalism 
and  apparent  indifference  which  our 
modern  statesmen  of  Japan  display 
toward  religious  questions, — an  atti- 
tude often  construed  as  a false  idea  of 
European  statecraft,  if  not  of  agnos- 
ticism. The  demarcation  of  the  polit- 
ical from  the  religious  life,  the  divorce 
of  state  and  church,  is  no  new  idea 
with  us.  Indeed,  despite  our  temples 
and  monasteries,  we  have  no  church. 

The  innate  individualism  of  the 
Buddhist  ideal,  unlike  that  of  the  papal 
church  of  Europe,  which  is  even  now  a 
source  of  concern  to  some  nations,  has 
ever  prevented  the  formation  of  a sin- 
gle powerful  organization  to  impose 
its  influence  on  the  state.  The  tem- 
poral power  exercised  by  some  of  our 
monks  was  due  solely  to  their  personal 
60 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


influence  over  the  Mikado  or  his  oflicers, 
in  the  imperial  days  before  the  feudal 
period.  It  was  a sort  of  mundane  of- 
fering laid  at  the  feet  of  holiness,  and 
was  the  temporary  result  of  a purely 
personal  relationship.  The  priesthood, 
as  a body  or  sect,  rarely  tried  to  retain 
authority  over  the  government,  and  the 
social  consciousness  was  always  eager 
to  reclaim  what  it  considered  its  own 
special  function.  A sovereign  might 
be  carried  away  by  his  spiritual  zeal, 
but  the  dynasty  invariably  recovered  its 
equilibrium.  With  the  rise  of  the  Ka- 
makura shogunate,  the  Buddhist  power, 
which  had  its  root  in  the  devotion  of  the 
Kioto  court,  declined.  The  ultra-indi- 
vidualistic sect  of  Zen,  which  at  this 
time  became  the  leading  school  of 
thought,  made  no  pretense  to  political 
ambition.  During  the  turbulent  age 
61 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


that  followed,  the  predatory  attacks  of 
neighboring  barons  on  the  monasteries 
caused  the  establishment  of  an  armed 
monkhood.  These  warrior-priests 
guarded  the  sanctuaries,  and,  either 
alone  or  in  alliance  with  various  dai- 
mios,  were  a prominent  feature  in  the 
Ashikaga  wars,  where  they  are  often 
found  foremost  in  the  fray,  their  robe 
of  mercy  ill  concealing  the  blood- 
stained mail  beneath.  They  had,  how- 
ever, almost  disappeared  by  the  time 
of  lyeyasu,  when  the  Hongangi,  the 
last  sect  which  still  boasted  of  some 
military  adherents,  was  easily  made  to 
submit  to  the  authority  of  the  shogun. 

The  policy  of  lyeyasu  toward  Bud- 
dhism is  characteristic  of  the  funda- 
mental idea  of  Eastern  statesmanship. 
Himself  a Confucian,  he  counted 
among  his  best  friends  the  three  great 
62 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


Buddhist  monks  of  his  age.  He  would 
have  tolerated  even  Christianity,  if  the 
Jesuit  movement  had  not  covered  a 
pohtical  menace.  He  guaranteed  the 
privileges  of  the  monasteries,  restored 
and  insured  their  revenues,  and 
granted  funds  for  the  publication  of 
religious  works.  He  even  enforced 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  punished 
by  the  pillory  and  banishment  all  those 
who  broke  the  monastic  vows.  But  at 
the  same  time  he  debarred  the  priest- 
hood from  any  participation  in  the  gov- 
ernment. He  abolished  the  custom  of 
employing  Buddhist  agents  in  diplo- 
matic amenities  with  Korea,  and  ap- 
pointed a lay  officer  to  control  all  af- 
fairs connected  with  the  clergy.  The 
influence  of  Buddhism  was  on  the  wane. 
Under  the  protection  afforded  to  the 
monkhood,  and  the  cultured  ease  they 
63 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


enjoyed,  the  monasteries  became  uni- 
versities whose  occupants  were  famed 
more  for  their  erudition  than  for  their 
holiness.  The  single  new  sect  which 
originated  in  that  era  differed  from 
the  others  only  in  discipline,  a subject 
widely  discussed  in  that  age  of  order 
and  strict  regime. 

Like  Buddhism,  Confucianism  had 
in  its  later  developments  become  super- 
social and  indifferent  to  politics  through 
its  absorption  of  Taoist  and  Buddhist 
ideals.  In  China,  from  the  latter  part 
of  the  Tang  d5masty,  Confucianism 
tended  to  become  religious  instead  of 
being  purely  ethical,  as  in  previous 
days.  In  Japan  this  tendency  was 
even  more  pronounced,  for  during  our 
feudal  age  all  branches  of  learning 
were  confined  to  the  Buddhists,  so  that 
the  early  teachers  in  the  Tokugawa 
64! 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


academies  were  mostly  monks  who  had 
been  induced  to  return  to  a secular  life 
in  order  to  impart  secular  teaching. 
They  did  not  give  up  their  Buddhist 
costume  for  a long  time,  and  used  to 
shave  their  heads  even  after  they  began 
to  wear  swords  like  other  samurai. 
They  were  all  followers  of  the  school 
of  Shiuki,  a Neo-Confucian  of  the 
Sung  dynasty,  and  the  teaching  they 
imparted  accorded  well  with  their  dress. 
Neo-Confucianism,  a product  of  that 
remarkable  age  of  ‘‘illumination,”  so 
rich  in  creative  efforts  both  in  art  and 
literature,  aimed  at  a synthesis  of  Tao- 
ist, Buddhist,  and  Confucian  thought, 
and  marks  the  result  of  a brilliant  ef- 
fort to  mirror  the  whole  of  Asiatic  con- 
sciousness. Its  exponents  differed  in 
their  interpretation  of  the  Confucian 
classic,  according  to  their  mental  affini- 
65 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ties  with  Chinese  or  Indian  thought. 
Some  of  them  were  called  “strayed 
Zen,”  in  the  same  sense  as  Sanchara- 
charya,  the  Neo-Brahmanist,  was  ac- 
cused of  being  a “ disguised  Buddhist.” 
Shiuki,  however,  through  his  greater 
leaning  toward  the  doctrines  of  the 
Chinese  sage,  was  recognized  as  the 
central  figure  of  Neo-Confucianism. 
His  Commentaries  on  Confucius  were 
made  official  text-books  by  the  Em- 
peror Yan-lu  of  the  Ming  dynasty,  and 
his  school  was  accepted  as  orthodox 
by  lyeyasu.  The  general  trend  of 
Neo-Confucianism,  even  with  Shiuki, 
tended  to  make  it  abstract  and  specu- 
lative, so  that  as  a result  its  votaries 
differed  but  slightly  from  the  followers 
of  Buddha,  making  self-concentration 
an  important  part  of  mental  exercise. 
The  Ming  scholars,  with  their  formal- 
66 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


istic  instincts,  dogmatized  the  instruc- 
tions of  Shiuki,  and  wasted  their  en- 
ergy on  his  abstract  rules  of  morality 
and  terminology, — an  example  fol- 
lowed by  the  Japanese  academicians. 
Confucianism  was  thus  deprived  of  its 
very  essence — practical  ethics.  “As 
foolish  as  a scholar,”  was  a common 
witticism  of  Tokugawa  days.  Two 
schools  of  heresy  tried  to  stem  the  tide 
and  infuse  vitality  into  the  Confucian 
doctrines,  but  they  commanded  an  in- 
significant minority,  for  the  Tokugawa 
censorship  was  rigorous  in  suppressing 
all  schools  of  thought  that  dared  to  dif- 
fer from  the  orthodox  teaching  of  its 
own  academy. 

Thus  the  knowledge  that  lyeyasu 
imparted  to  the  nation  was,  after  all, 
of  a kind  that  gave  no  great  stimulus 
to  social  activity.  His  system  of  in- 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


struction  formed  as  much  a part  of  his 
scheme  for  preserving  absolutism  as 
any  of  the  military  precautions  he 
took  against  the  power  of  the  Kioto 
court  or  that  of  the  daimiates.  Yet 
it  is  but  fair  to  say  that  the  encourage- 
ment of  learning  inaugurated  by  him 
had  much  to  do  with  the  formation  of 
modern  Japanese  character.  Buddhism 
and  Neo-Confucianism  (which  is  truly 
Buddhist  in  its  nature)  gave  to  the  na- 
tion that  meditative  trend  of  mind  which 
makes  it  possible  for  it  to  face  emer- 
gencies with  calmness.  If  he  did  not 
initiate  an  era  of  progress,  at  least  he 
taught  stability.  If  it  had  not  been  for 
this,  the  fierce  turmoil  of  the  Restora- 
tion, with  its  violent  accession  of  West- 
ern thought,  would  have  swept  Japan 
from  her  ancient  anchorage  into  an  un- 
known and  stormy  sea. 

68 


BUDDHISM  AND  CONFUCIANISM 


Asia  is  nothing  if  not  spiritual,  but 
the  man  of  the  spirit  is  not  one  of 
names  or  forms.  He  comes,  we  wist 
not  whence,  and,  like  another  Lohen- 
grin, vanishes  when  revealed,  to  fol- 
low the  quest  mysterious  in  regions  un- 
known. True  spirituality  forsook  the 
luxury  of  the  monastery  and  the  ease 
of  the  academy,  to  take  its  rugged  seat 
in  the  breast  of  the  lonely  ronin-scholar. 
Like  the  snow-covered  narcissus  pining 
for  a glimpse  of  heaven,  its  silent  soul 
bore  the  quenchless  prophecy  of  spring. 


69 


IV 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 

IT  seems  to  be  the  general  impression 
among  foreigners  that  it  was  the 
West  who,  with  the  touch  of  a magic 
wand,  suddenly  roused  us  from  the  sleep 
of  centuries.  The  real  cause  of  our 
awakening,  however,  came  from  within. 
Our  national  consciousness  had  already 
begun  to  stir  when,  in  the  year  1853, 
Commodore  Perry  reached  our  shores, 
and  had  waited  but  for  that  event  to  in- 
augurate a universal  movement  toward 
renationalization. 

Three  separate  schools  of  thought 
united  to  cause  the  regeneration  of  Ja- 
pan. The  first  taught  her  to  inquire; 
70 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


the  second,  to  act;  the  third,  for  what  to 
act.  All  were  tiny  streams  at  their  out- 
set, finding  their  source  in  the  solitary 
souls  of  independent  thinkers  who 
nursed  them  always  under  censure,  of- 
ten in  banishment.  They  even  coursed 
from  within  the  prison  walls  and 
trickled  from  the  scaffold.  They  were 
almost  hidden  beneath  the  rank  vege- 
tation of  conventionalism  until  the  mo- 
ment when  they  united  to  leap  in  cat- 
aracts of  patriotic  zeal  inundating  the 
whole  nation. 

The  first,  known  as  the  Kogaku 
(School  of  Classic  Learning),  arose  at 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  as  a 
protest  against  the  dogmas  of  the  gov- 
ernmental academies.  Its  originators 
claimed  that  the  Neo-Confucianism  of 
Shiuki  as  taught  in  the  academies  was 
not  really  Confucianism,  but  a new- 
71 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


f angled  interpretation  of  Buddhism  and 
T aoism.  They  invited  scholars  to  return 
to  the  original  texts  of  the  sage  himself 
and  find  anew  the  real  meaning  thereof. 
It  was  a bold  stand  for  them  to  take, 
considering  that  Shiuki’s  commentaries 
were  considered  orthodox  and  their  au- 
thority had  remained  unquestioned  both 
in  China  and  Japan  since  the  Sung  Illu- 
mination of  the  eleventh  century.  This 
school  for  the  first  time  frees  the  Toku- 
gawa  mind  from  the  trammels  of  for- 
malism, though  its  liberalism  does  not 
result  in  any  particular  conclusions. 

Its  very  attitude,  that  of  inquiry,  pre- 
vents it  from  crystallizing  into  any 
single  solution  of  Confucianism.  Some 
of  its  adherents,  like  Sorai,  go  as  far  as 
to  maintain  that  Confucius  was  purely 
a political  philosopher  and  not  a teacher 
of  ethics.  Some,  on  the  other  hand,  like 
72 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


Yamaga-Soko,  to  whom  we  owe  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Samurai  Code  on  a 
Confucian  basis,  found  in  Japanese  in- 
stitutions the  expression  of  the  moral 
law  of  the  Chinese  sage.  Yet  however 
they  differed  individually  in  their  con- 
clusions, they  united  in  being  heretical 
toward  the  orthodox  Tokugawa  notions, 
and  all  were  objects  of  disapprobation 
to  the  authorities, — Yamaga-Soko,  who 
commanded  a considerable  following, 
being  banished  from  Yedo  to  the  dis- 
tant and  insignificant  daimiate  of 
Akho.  Yet  even  during  his  confine- 
ment there  his  personality  inspired 
the  weU-known  Forty-seven  Ronins  to 
achieve  their  memorable  feat  of  loyalty, 
remarkable  not  only  as  revealing  a new 
ideal  of  samurai-hood,  but  eloquent  in 
its  silent  protest  against  the  Tokugawa 
regime. 


73 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


The  second  school,  which  started  at 
nearly  the  same  time  as  the  first,  is 
called  the  School  of  Oyomei,  from  the 
Japanese  pronunciation  of  Wangyang- 
ming,  the  name  of  its  founder.  This 
remarkable  man  was  a great  general  as 
well  as  scholar  who  lived  in  China  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
under  the  Ming  dynasty.  He  never 
ceased  to  discourse  even  during  the 
brilliant  campaigns  in  which  he  was  vic- 
torious over  the  rebels  in  Southern 
China.  His  philosophy  was  an  ad- 
vance on  the  Neo-Confucianism  of 
Shiuki,  whose  doctrines,  however,  he  ac- 
cepted in  the  main.  His  principal  con- 
tribution lay  in  his  definition  of  know- 
ledge. With  him  all  knowledge  was 
useless  unless  expressed  in  action.  To 
know  was  to  be.  Virtue  was  real  in 
so  far  only  as  it  was  manifested  in 
74 


THE  VOICE  FROM  AVITHIN 


deeds.  The  whole  universe  was  inces- 
santly surging  on  to  higher  spheres  of 
development,  calling  upon  all  to  join  in 
its  glorious  advance.  To  realize  their 
teachings  it  was  necessary  to  live  the  life 
of  the  sages  themselves,  to  consecrate 
one’s  whole  energy  to  the  service  of 
mankind.  Thus  he  brought  Confu- 
cianism again  into  its  true  domain,  that 
of  practical  ethics. 

His  doctrines  appear  to  have  had 
only  a temporary  influence  on  China 
itself,  but  they  possessed  a peculiar 
charm  for  the  Japanese  mind,  and  later 
furnished  one  of  the  principal  incen- 
tives toward  the  accomplishment  of 
the  Restoration.  One  of  the  pioneers 
of  this  school  in  Japan  has  produced 
such  an  impression  on  the  moral  life  of 
the  districts  around  Lake  Biwa  that  his 
memory  is  still  cherished  as  that  of  the 
75 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


“Living  Confucius.”  Another,  devot- 
ing himself  to  the  material  welfare  of 
the  people,  has  left  in  his  engineering 
feats  for  the  irrigation  of  the  Okayama 
provinces  a monument  to  the  zeal  in- 
spired by  0}  omei ; yet  he  had  to  suffer 
for  heresy  and  died  in  exile  and  dis- 
grace. 

The  Oyomian  scholars  of  Japan 
went  further  than  the  Chinese  in  their 
dynamic  conception  of  the  cosmic  force. 
Their  predilection  for  Indian  modes 
of  thought,  especially  for  that  of  the 
Zen  sect  of  Buddhism,  made  them 
lay  great  stress  on  the  idea  of  change, 
with  the  result  that  they  came  to  conclu- 
sions curiously  akin  to  many  of  those 
held  by  modern  evolutionists.  The 
Buddhas  of  the  past  were  not  the  Bud- 
dhas of  the  future,  for  they  must  in- 
clude the  former  and  something  more. 

76 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


Every  new  life  was  built  on  the  debris 
of  the  past  and  amid  the  tumultuous 
crash  of  a myriad  of  dissolving  worlds. 
A reincarnation  was  self-realization  on 
a different  plane.  How  magnificent  is 
change!  How  beautiful  the  great 
transition  known  as  life  and  death! 

The  Japanese  Oyomians  delighted  in 
the  image  of  the  dragon.  Have  you 
seen  the  dragon?  Approach  him  cau- 
tiously, for  no  mortal  can  survive  the 
sight  of  his  entire  body.  The  Eastern 
dragon  is  not  the  gruesome  monster  of 
medieval  imagination,  but  the  genius 
of  strength  and  goodness.  He  is  the 
spirit  of  change,  therefore  of  life 
itself.  We  associate  him  with  the  su- 
preme power  or  that  sovereign  cause 
which  pervades  everything,  taking  new^ 
forms  according  to  its  surroundings, 
yet  never  seen  in  a final  shape.  The 
77 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


dragon  is  the  great  mystery  itself. 
Hidden  in  the  caverns  of  inaccessible 
mountains,  or  coiled  in  the  unfathomed 
depth  of  the  sea,  he  awaits  the  time 
when  he  slowly  rouses  himself  into  ac- 
tivity. He  imfolds  himself  in  the  storm 
clouds ; he  washes  his  mane  in  the  black- 
ness of  the  seething  whirlpools.  His 
claws  are  in  the  fork  of  the  lightning, 
his  scales  begin  to  glisten  in  the  bark 
of  rain-swept  pine-trees.  His  voice  is 
heard  in  the  hurricane  which,  scatter- 
ing the  withered  leaves  of  the  forest, 
quickens  a new  spring.  The  dragon  re- 
veals himself  only  to  vanish.  He  is  a 
glorious  symbolic  image  of  that  elas- 
ticity of  organism  which  shakes  off  the 
inert  mass  of  exhausted  matter.  Coil- 
ing again  and  again  on  his  strength,  he 
sheds  his  crusted  skin  amid  the  battle  of 
elements,  and  for  an  instant  stands  half 
78 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


revealed  by  the  brilliant  shimmer  of  his 
scales.  He  strikes  not  till  his  throat  is 
touched.  Then  woe  to  him  who  dallies 
with  the  terrible  one! 

The  dragon  is  said  never  to  be  the 
same.  What  flower  is?  What  life? 
The  secret  of  knowledge,  according  to 
the  Oyomians,  was  to  penetrate  behind 
the  mask  which  change  imposed  upon 
things.  So-called  facts  and  forms  were 
merely  incidents  beneath  which  the  real 
life  lay  hidden.  This  they  loved  to  il- 
lustrate by  the  Taoist  parable  of  the 
Real  Horse.  Once  upon  a time,  it  is 
related,  a king  of  China  was  desirous  of 
procuring  the  best  horse  in  the  world, 
wherefore  he  asked  Hakuraku,  all- 
knowing in  horses,  to  make  search  far 
and  wide.  After  a long  time  Haku- 
raku returned  and  reported  to  the 
king  that  a bay  mare  on  a certain  pas- 
79 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ture  was  the  most  perfect  horse  exist- 
ent. Thereupon  the  king  sent  vassals 
laden  with  treasures  to  bring  the  steed 
to  his  court.  When,  however,  they  came 
to  the  place  described  by  Hakuraku 
they  found  not  a bay  mare,  but  a black 
stallion.  This  they  brought  back  with 
them,  and  it  was  found  to  be  the  paragon 
of  equine  beauty  and  strength.  To  the 
true  connoisseur  of  horses  the  real  horse 
was  visible  in  something  beyond  the  sec- 
ondary features  of  color  and  sex.  Even 
thus  it  is  with  all  true  knowledge,  said 
the  Oyomians. 

The  orthodox  academicians  were 
doubly  hostile  to  the  Oyomei  School  as 
a perversion  of  their  own  Nteo-Confu- 
cianism.  The  terror  of  their  censorship 
lay  not  so  much  in  open  attacks  on  the 
doctrines  themselves  as  in  the  treacher- 
ous and  unexpected  manner  in  which 
80 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


they  brought  punishment  upon  their 
holders. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  the  new  idea  was 
fostered  and  slowly  gained  ground  in 
those  distant  daimiates  where  censorial 
interference  was  comparatively  slight. 
It  is  significant  that  the  two  provinces 
of  Satsuma  and  Choshiu,  from  which  all 
the  great  statesmen  of  modern  Japan 
come,  were  the  chief  refuge  pf  this 
school  of  philosophy.  Among  those  of 
our  generals  and  admirals  who  have 
distinguished  themselves  in  the  Chinese 
and  Russian  wars,  many  were  brought 
up  as  youths  in  the  principles  of  Oyo- 
mei.  This  it  is  which  makes  them 
calm  amid  danger,  resourceful  in  plan- 
ning, and  ever  alert  to  meet  the  dictates 
of  change.  It  was  largely  due  to  the 
spread  of  Oyomian  philosophy  that 
Japan  recognized  the  dragon  amid  the 
81 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


boiling  ferment  of  the  Restoration. 
Like  the  Real  Horse  of  Hakuraku,  the 
spirit  of  Old  Japan,  in  spite  of  the  ac- 
cretions of  centuries,  was  still  manifest. 

The  Tokugawa  authorities  had  every- 
thing to  fear  from  the  revolutionary 
nature  of  the  Oyomei  doctrine,  whose 
followers  hesitated  at  nothing  where 
their  idea  of  righteousness  was  con- 
cerned. It  was  Oshiwo,  a celebrated 
Oyomei  scholar  of  Osaka,  who  with  all 
his  disciples  rose  in  open  revolt  when 
the  governor  of  that  city  refused  for 
some  insufficient  reason  to  grant  sub- 
sistence to  the  populace  during  the 
severe  famine  of  1837.  He  fired  on  the 
garrison  and  held  them  in  check  while 
he  distributed  the  contents  of  the  gov- 
ernment granaries  to  the  famished 
people,  after  which  he  calmly  met  his 
death.  His  mental  attitude  may  be 
82 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


well  seen  where,  in  an  interesting  philo- 
sophical work,  he  says:  ‘‘  Strike  like  the 
lightning,  be  terrible  like  the  thunder, 
but  remember  that  the  sky  itself  is  al- 
ways clear  above.” 

Neither  the  heresy  of  the  Classic 
School  nor  the  virility  of  the  Oyo- 
mei  School  would  in  themselves  have 
evolved  the  political  conception  that  led 
to  the  Restoration.  They  were,  after 
all,  but  differentiations  in  Confucian- 
ism, and  Confucianism  ordained  obedi- 
ence to  existing  authority  provided  that 
the  moral  life  of  the  community  was  not 
thereby  destroyed.  Hence  it  was  that 
the  Ming  scholars  offered  no  resistance 
to  the  Manchu  rule.  It  was  for  this 
same  reason  that  the  Tokugawa  Confu- 
cians,  whatever  their  school,  never 
dreamed  of  instituting  a change  in  our 
political  system.  Oyomei  taught  to  act. 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


but  not  for  what  or  for  whom.  This  de- 
ficiency it  was  the  mission  of  the  His- 
torical School  to  supply. 

The  Historical  School  was  not  a 
heresy,  and  was  therefore  rarely  re- 
garded with  suspicion  by  the  censors. 
On  the  contrary,  the  Tokugawas  them- 
selves encouraged  it,  for  it  accorded 
with  their  traditional  policy.  The 
movement  began  early  in  their  rule  with 
a compilation  of  the  genealogies  of  the 
chief  families  in  the  empire  and  the 
publication  of  histories  redounding  to 
the  credit  of  the  Tokugawas  themselves. 
One  important  history  written  by  the 
chief  academician  of  his  time  is  inter- 
esting as  evincing  the  utmost  servility 
to  Confucian  classicism,  in  that  the  au- 
thor tries  to  prove  the  descent  of  the 
Mikado  from  the  Chinese  sages.  By 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
84 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


however,  the  pure  light  of  research  ap- 
peared in  the  study  of  philology.  This 
movement,  led  by  Keichiu-acharya  and 
culminating  in  the  illustrious  works  of 
Motoori  and  Harumi,  opened  up  in  our 
ancient  poetry  and  history  a new  vista 
of  thought.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
century  the  study  of  archaeology  in- 
creased to  such  an  extent  that  the  Toku- 
gawa  government  and  wealthy  daimios 
vied  with  each  other  in  the  collection  of 
rare  manuscripts  and  encyclopedic 
publications  on  art,  while  well-known 
connoisseurs  were  appointed  to  inves- 
tigate and  record  the  treasures  of  the 
old  monasteries  at  Nara  and  Kioto. 
All  this  continued  to  lift  the  veil  which 
had  hung  for  so  many  centuries  over  the 
past.  This  was  indeed  the  era  of  Re- 
naissance in  Japan. 

The  acquisition  of  historical  know- 
85 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ledge  resulted  in  the  revivification  of 
Shintoism.  The  purity  of  this  ancient 
cult  had  been  overflowed  by  successive 
waves  of  continental  influence  until  it 
had  almost  entirely  lost  its  original 
character.  In  the  ninth  century  it  be- 
came merely  a branch  of  esoteric  Bud- 
dhism and  delighted  in  mystic  sjunbol- 
ism,  while  after  the  fifteenth  century  it 
was  entirely  Neo-Confucian  in  spirit 
and  accepted  the  cosmic  interpretation 
of  the  Taoists.  But  with  the  revival  of 
ancient  learning  it  became  divested  of 
these  alien  elements.  Shintoism  as  for- 
mulated in  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  a religion  of  ancestrism 
— a worship  of  pristine  purity  handed 
down  from  the  age  of  the  gods.  It 
teaches  adherence  to  those  ancestral 
ideals  of  the  Japanese  race,  simplicity 
and  honesty,  obedience  to  the  ancestral 
86 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 

rule  vested  in  the  person  of  the  Mikado, 
and  devotion  to  the  ancestral  land  on 
whose  consecrated  and  divine  shores  no 
foreign  conqueror  has  ever  set  his  foot. 
It  called  upon  Japan  to  break  loose 
from  blind  slavery  to  Chinese  and  In- 
dian ideals,  and  to  rely  upon  herself. 

The  historic  spirit  swept  on  through 
the  realms  of  literature,  art,  and  relig- 
ion, until  it  finally  reached  the  heart  of 
the  samurai.  Till  then  its  effects  had 
been  brilliant  but  not  momentous,  its 
expressions  scholarly  and  therefore  lim- 
ited in  scope.  A democratization  of 
the  new  message  is  found  in  the  works 
of  the  early  writers  of  the  last  century, 
among  whom  the  poet-historian  Rai- 
Sanyo  stands  foremost  in  rank.  It  was 
from  his  lucid  pages  that  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  past  dawned  on  the  minds  of 
the  young  samurai  and  ronins.  Their 
87 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


memories  traveled  back  to  the  days 
when  the  imperial  sanctity  was  forgot- 
ten and  the  chrysanthemum  cowered  be- 
fore the  cruel  blast  of  Ashikaga  arro- 
gance, while  even  the  palace  itself,  with 
none  so  loyal  as  to  undertake  its  repair, 
was  sinking  in  ruin  within  sight  of 
the  Golden  Pavilion  of  the  shoguns. 
Sadly  they  read  the  poems  of  some 
lonely  loyalist  who,  like  a solitary 
cuckoo,  poured  his  sad  song  into  the 
moonless  night. 

They  dwelt  with  mingled  pride  and 
sorrow  on  the  story  of  the  Emperor  Go- 
daigo,  who  broke  the  power  of  the  Ka- 
makura shogunate  and  for  a time 
reestablished  legitimate  rule.  They 
thought  of  his  undaunted  courage  in 
raising  the  country  against  the  usurpers, 
of  his  exile  to  the  distant  island  of  Sado, 
of  his  miraculous  escape  in  a fishing- 
88 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


boat,  of  his  triumphs  over  the  enemy, 
and  of  his  fastness  in  the  mountain  of 
Yoshino,^  where  he  held  his  court  until 
the  time  when  the  cherry-blossoms  cov- 
ered his  mausoleum  with  their  tribute 
of  tender  homage. 

The  gaunt  image  of  Masashige  rose 
before  them,  that  hero  who  fought  for 
the  Emperor  Godaigo  knowing  that  his 
cause  was  already  lost.  They  read  how 
he  it  was  who  first  dared  answer  the  im- 
perial summons  to  fight  the  usurper, 
how  he  planned  and  carried  out  the 
guerrilla  warfare  which  led  to  a tem- 
porary restitution  of  the  Mikado’s 
power,  and  claimed  no  reward  when  his 
work  was  accomplished.  “What  is  thy 
last  wish?”  said  he  to  his  brother  as, 
wounded  unto  death,  they  both  emerged 

^ Yoshino,  a hill  in  the  Nara  prefecture  noted  from 
ancient  times  for  its  cherry-blossoms. 

89 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


from  their  last  terrible  battle  with  the 
Ashikaga  hosts.  Smiling,  he  listened 
to  the  swift  reply,  “ I wish  to  be  born 
again  to  strike  a blow  for  the  Mikado,” 
and  said,  “ Though  Buddhists  teach 
that  such  wishes  are  sinful  and  lead  to 
the  hell  of  Asuras,  yet  not  for  once  only 
but  for  seven  lives  do  I wish  to  be  re- 
born for  that  same  end”;  then  each  fell 
by  the  other’s  sword.  They  read  how 
Masatsura,  the  son  of  Mashashige,  re- 
fused the  first  beauty  of  the  court,  who 
was  deeply  attached  to  him,  when  the 
Mikado  offered  her  to  him  as  a reward 
for  his  hereditary  loyalty,  pleading  that 
his  life  was  for  death  and  not  love. 

Soon  as  the  memory  of  past  ages 
came  over  the  samurai,  the  lost  glory 
of  the  Son  of  Heaven  fiashed  upon 
them.  They  saw  the  Mikado  himself 
leading  his  army  to  victory.  They 
90 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


heard  their  ancestors  beating  their 
shields  with  their  swords,  as  they  sang 
the  war-song  of  Otomo,  the  terrible  joy 
of  dying  by  the  Mikado’s  side.  They 
wept  when  they  thought  of  the  shadow 
that  had  come  over  the  throne.  They 
made  pilgrimages  to  the  imperial  mau- 
soleums, which  had  long  been  left  to  de- 
cay, and  washed  their  moss-covered 
steps  with  tears.  Who  were  the  Toku- 
gawas  who  dared  to  stand  between  them 
and  their  legitimate  sovereign?  Oh,  to 
die — ^to  die  for  the  Mikado ! 

The  historic  spirit  now  stood  sword 
in  hand,  and  the  sword  was  one  of  no 
mean  steel.  The  samurai,  like  his 
weapon,  was  cold,  but  never  forgot  the 
fire  in  which  he  was  forged.  His  im- 
petuosity was  always  tempered  by  his 
code  of  honor.  In  the  feudal  days 
Zen  had  taught  him  self-restraint  and 
91 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


made  courteousness  the  mark  of  brav- 
ery. Confucianism  had  in  the  Toku- 
gawa  period  intensified  that  sense  of 
duty  which  made  him  disregard  all  ob- 
stacles. He  did  not  court  useless  danger, 
for  his  courage  was  never  questioned. 
He  marched  to  certain  death  not  with 
the  blind  fury  of  fanaticism  but  with 
a set  resolution  of  doing  whatever  was 
demanded  of  him.  The  historical  spirit 
in  penetrating  his  soul  made  him  a new 
being.  All  the  devotion  which  had  for- 
merly been  consecrated  to  the  service  of 
his  immediate  liege  was  now  laid  at  the 
feet  of  the  Mikado. 

Soon  the  historical  spirit  began  to 
permeate  the  ranks  of  the  daimios.  It 
first  entered  the  souls  of  those  Tozama 
daimios  who,  like  the  lords  of  Satsuma 
and  Choshiu,  felt  a hereditary  animosity 
92 


THE  VOICE  FROM  WITHIN 


to  the  shogunate.  Later  on  it  began  to 
influence  even  the  princes  of  the  Toku- 
gawa  family,  especially  the  princes  of 
Mito  and  the  lords  of  Echizen.  The 
scholars  of  these  daimiates,  with  their 
Shinto  and  Oyomian  tendencies,  were 
the  apostles  of  the  Restoration.  It  is 
to  be  noted  that  Keiki,  last  of  the  sho- 
guns, who  voluntarily  gave  up  the  reins 
of  government  to  the  Mikado,  was  a 
prince  of  Mito. 

The  hour  had  come  when  dreams 
were  to  be  translated  into  action,  and 
the  sword  was  to  leave  the  quiet  of  the 
scabbard  and  leap  forth  with  the  fury 
of  lightning. 

Strange  whispers  traveled  from  the 
cities  to  the  villages.  The  lotus  trem- 
bled above  the  turbid  waters,  the  stars 
began  to  pale  before  the  dawn,  and  that 
93 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


mighty  hush  which  bespeaks  the  com- 
ing storm  fell  on  the  nation.  Oyomei 
was  abroad  and  the  dragon  was  calling 
forth  the  hurricane.  It  was  at  this 
moment  that  the  West  appeared  on  our 
horizon. 


94. 


V 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 

TO  MOST  Eastern  nations  the  advent 
of  the  West  has  been  by  no  means 
an  unmixed  blessing.  Thinking  to 
welcome  the  benefits  of  increased  com- 
merce, they  have  become  the  victims  of 
foreign  imperialism;  believing  in  the 
philanthropic  aims  of  Christian  mission- 
aries, they  have  bowed  before  the  mes- 
sengers of  military  aggression.  For 
them  the  earth  is  no  longer  filled  with 
that  peace  which  pillowed  their  content- 
ment. If  the  guilty  conscience  of  some 
European  nations  has  conjured  up  the 
specter  of  a Yellow  Peril,  may  not  the 
suffering  soul  of  Asia  wail  over  the 
realities  of  the  White  Disaster. 


95 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


To  the  mind  of  the  average  West- 
erner it  may  seem  but  natural  to  regard 
with  feelings  of  unmingled  triumph 
that  world  of  to-day  in  which  or- 
ganization has  made  of  society  a huge 
machine  ministering  to  its  own  neces- 
sities. It  is  the  rapid  development  of 
mechanical  invention  which  has  created 
the  present  era  of  locomotion  and  specu- 
lation, a development  which  is  working 
itself  out  into  various  expressions  of 
commercialism  and  industrialism,  ac- 
companied by  a tendency  toward  the 
universal  occidentalization  of  etiquette 
and  language.  This  movement,  result- 
ing in  a rapid  expansion  of  wealth  and 
prestige,  originated  in  a profound  reali- 
zation of  the  glory  of  manhood,  of  com- 
radeship, and  of  mutual  trust.  The 
restlessness  that  constantly  moves  its 
home  from  the  steamer  to  the  hotel, 
96 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


from  the  railway  station  to  the  bathing 
resort,  has  brought  about  the  possibility 
of  a cosmopolitan  culture.  The  nine- 
teenth century  has  witnessed  a wonder- 
ful spread  in  the  blessings  of  scientific 
sanitation  and  surgery.  Knowledge  as 
well  as  finance  has  become  organized, 
and  large  communities  are  made  capa- 
ble of  collective  action  and  the  develop- 
ment of  a single  personal  consciousness. 

To  the  inhabitant  of  the  West  all 
this  may  well  be  food  for  satisfaction; 
to  him  it  may  seem  inconceivable  that 
others  should  think  difF erently.  Y et  to 
the  bland  irony  of  China  the  machine 
appears  as  a toy,  not  an  ideal.  The  ven- 
erable East  still  distinguishes  between 
means  and  ends.  The  West  is  for  pro- 
gress, but  progress  toward  what? 
When  material  efficiency  is  complete, 
what  end,  asks  Asia,  will  have  been  ac- 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


complished?  When  the  passion  of  fra- 
ternity has  culminated  in  universal  co- 
operation, what  purpose  is  it  to  serve? 
If  mere  self-interest,  where  do  we  find 
the  boasted  advance? 

The  picture  of  Western  glory  unfor- 
tunately has  a reverse.  Size  alone  does 
not  constitute  true  greatness,  and  the 
enjojunent  of  luxury  does  not  always 
result  in  refinement.  The  individuals 
who  go  to  the  making  up  of  the  great 
machine  of  so-called  modern  civiliza- 
tion become  the  slaves  of  mechanical 
habit  and  are  ruthlessly  dominated  by 
the  monster  they  have  created.  In  spite 
of  the  vaunted  freedom  of  the  West, 
true  individuality  is  destroyed  in  the 
competition  for  wealth,  and  happiness 
and  contentment  are  sacrificed  to  an  in- 
cessant craving  for  more.  The  West 
takes  pride  in  its  emancipation  from 
98 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


medieval  superstition,  but  what  of  that  ^ 
idolatrous  worship  of  wealth  that  has 
taken  its  place?  What  sufferings  and 
discontent  lie  hidden  behind  the  gor- 
geous mask  of  the  present?  The  voice 
of  socialism  is  a wail  over  the  agonies 
of  Western  economics, — the  tragedy  of 
Capital  and  Labor. 

But  with  a hunger  unsatisfied  by  its 
myriad  victims  in  its  own  broad  lands, 
the  West  also  seeks  to  prey  upon  the 
East.  The  advance  of  Europe  in  Asia 
means  not  merely  the  imposition  of  so- 
cial ideals  which  the  East  holds  to  be 
crude  if  not  barbarous,  but  also  the  sub- 
version of  all  existing  law  and  author- 
ity. The  Western  ships  which  brought 
their  civilization  also  brought  conquests, 
protectorates,  ex-territorial  jurisdiction, 
spheres  of  influence,  and  what  not  of 
debasement,  till  the  name  of  the  Oriental 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


has  become  a synonym  for  the  degen- 
erate, and  the  word  “ native  ” an  epithet 
for  slaves. 

In  Japan  the  race  of  those  fiery  pa- 
triots who  fifty  years  ago  shouted, 
“Away  with  the  Western  barbarians!” 
with  all  the  lusty  enthusiasm  of  the 
Chinese  Boxers,  is  entirely  gone.  The 
tremendous  change  which  has  since 
come  over  our  political  life,  and  the  ma- 
terial advantages  we  have  gained  by 
foreign  contact,  have  so  completely 
revolutionized  national  sentiment  in  re- 
gard to  the  West  that  it  has  become  al- 
most impossible  for  us  to  conceive  what 
it  was  that  so  aroused  the  antagonism  of 
our  grandfathers.  On  the  contrary,  we 
have  become  so  eager  to  identify  our- 
selves with  European  civilization  in- 
stead of  Asiatic  that  our  continental 
neighbors  regard  us  as  renegades — nay, 
100 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


even  as  an  embodiment  of  the  White 
Disaster  itself.  But  our  mental  stand- 
point of  a few  generations  back  was 
that  of  the  conservative  Chinese  patriot 
of  to-day,  and  we  saw  in  Western  ad- 
vance but  the  probable  encompassing 
of  our  ruin.  To  the  down-trodden  Ori- 
ental the  glory  of  Europe  is  but  the 
humiliation  of  Asia. 

If  we  place  ourselves  in  the  position 
of  a Chinese  patriot  of  to-day  we  shall 
be  able  to  understand  how  the  march  of 
contemporary  events  appeared  to  our 
grandfathers.  Their  fears  were  not  al- 
together without  reason,  for  to  the 
wounded  imagination  of  Orientals  his- 
tory told  of  the  gradual  advance  of 
the  White  Disaster  which  was  descend- 
ing on  Asia.  The  Italian  Renaissance 
marks  the  time  when,  freed  from  its 
chains,  the  roving  spirit  of  Western  en- 
101 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


terprise  first  began  to  seize  upon  any 
corner  of  the  globe  where  was  aught  to 
be  gained.  When  Marco  Polo  returned 
from  the  Chinese  court,  he  bore  tidings 
of  the  untold  treasures  of  the  extreme 
Orient.  America  was  merely  an  acciden- 
tal discovery  on  the  part  of  Spain  in  her 
attempt  to  reach  the  coveted  wealth  of 
India.  We  recalled  those  days  of  Por- 
tuguese cruelty  and  Dutch  treachery, 
when  the  cow’s  hide  gained  a colony  and 
the  concession  for  a factory  resulted  in 
the  establishment  of  an  empire. 

The  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  shows  the  rise  of  the  East  India 
companies  of  the  French,  Dutch,  Dan- 
ish, and  English,  the  gratification  of 
whose  political  ambitions,  however,  re- 
mained as  yet  unsatisfied  owing  to  the 
struggles  of  mutual  rivalry,  the  solidity 
of  the  Mussulman  power  of  Delhi,  and 
102 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


their  awe  of  that  great  Turkish  empire 
which  still  bravely  bore  the  brunt  of 
Western  advance  and  often  hurled  it 
back  to  the  walls  of  Vienna.  But  the 
brightness  of  the  Crescent  was  fast 
waning  before  the  combined  persistence 
of  the  West,  and  soon  the  disastrous 
treaty  of  Kutchuk-Kainarji  inaugu- 
rated the  imposition  of  Russian  inter- 
ference in  the  affairs  of  the  Porte.  In 
1803  the  last  of  the  Grand  Moguls  be- 
came a British  pensioner.  In  1839, 
Abdul  Med j id  ascended  the  throne  of 
Osmanli  under  the  “protection”  of 
European  powers. 

With  the  increase  in  credit  and  cap- 
ital during  the  latter  half  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  the  inventive  energy  of 
European  industrialism  is  set  in  motion. 
Coal  takes  the  place  of  wood  in  smelt- 
ing, and  the  flying  shuttle,  the  spinning- 
103 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


jenny,  the  mule,  the  power-loom,  and 
the  steam-engine  all  spring  up  in  for- 
midable array.  Commercialism  makes 
the  very  life  of  the  West  depend  upon 
her  finding  markets  for  her  goods.  Her 
role  is  now  to  sell,  and  that  of  the  East 
to  buy.  War  is  declared  from  her 
factories,  and  the  protests  of  her  more 
humane  statesmen  are  drowned  in  the 
noise  of  thundering  mills.  What 
chance  has  individualized  Eastern  trade 
against  the  sweeping  batteries  of  or- 
ganized commerce?  Cheapness  and 
competition,  like  the  mitrailleuse,  under 
whose  cover  they  advance,  now  sweep 
away  the  crafts.  The  economic  life  of 
the  Orient,  founded  on  land  and  la- 
bor and  deprived  of  a protective  tariff 
through  high-handed  diplomatic  action, 
succumbs  to  the  army  of  the  machine 
and  capital. 


104 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


What  has  become  of  India?  It  is  to- 
day a country  where  the  names  of  Asoka 
and  Vikramaditya  are  even  forgotten. 
It  is  a country  of  rajas  whose  breasts 
are  starry  with  dishonor,  and  of  national 
congresses  that  dare  not  protest.  Bur- 
ma was  in  existence  but  yesterday:  in 
the  rubies  of  Thebaw  cries  the  inno- 
cent blood  of  Mandalay.  The  Kohi- 
noor  is  even  as  a teardrop  of  Golconda. 
What  need  to  mention  the  painful 
comedies  enacted  in  Persia  and  Siam  or 
to  call  attention  to  the  “ protectorate 
established  by  France  over  Tonkin? 
Protectorate!  Against  whom? 

In  1842  a Christian  nation  forces 
opium  on  China  at  the  mouth  of  the  can- 
non and  extorts  Hongkong.  In  I860, 
on  a slight  pretext,  the  joint  armies  of 
France  and  England’ invade  Peking  and 
sack  the  Summer  Palace,  whose  treasures 
105 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


are  now  the  pride  of  European  mu- 
seums, while  the  Russians  always  main- 
tain a steady  encroachment  upon  the 
hereditary  domains  of  the  Celestial  Em- 
pire along  the  borders  of  the  Amur 
and  Hi.  The  kindly  intervention  of  the 
Triple  Coalition  after  the  Japanese 
war  was  but  a farce,  for  thereby  Russia 
gained  Port  Arthur,  Germany  Kiau- 
chau,  and  France  a tighter  grasp  on 
■Yunnan.  It  is  true  that  the  defilement 
of  their  sacred  shrines  goaded  the  Box- 
ers to  a passionate  outburst  of  fury;  but 
what  could  their  old-fashioned  arms 
avail  against  the  combined  armies  of 
the  allied  powers?  Their  ill-judged 
efforts  only  resulted  in  the  heaping  of 
indignities  upon  China  and  the  pay- 
ment by  her  of  exorbitant  indemnities. 
In  spite  of  repeated  promises  of  evacua- 
tion, Russia  has  endeavored  to  establish 
106 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


herself  permanently  in  Manchuria,  and 
the  persecuted  inhabitants  of  that  prov- 
ince behold  the  graveyards  of  their  be- 
loved forefathers  turned  into  railway 
stations,  while  Cossack  horses  find  sta- 
bling in  the  sacred  Temple  of  Heaven. 
If  Asia  was  old-fashioned,  was  Europe 
just?  If  China  tried  to  lift  her  head, 
if  the  worm  turned  in  its  agony,  did  not 
Europe  at  once  raise  the  cry  of  the  Yel- 
low Peril?  Verily,  the  glory  of  the 
West  is  the  humiliation  of  Asia. 

To  Japan  the  armed  embassy  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  1853 
seemed  a dread  image  of  that  White 
Disaster  whose  advent  had  proved  so 
fatal  to  other  Eastern  countries. 
Eleven  years  before  that  event  the 
Opium  War  in  China  had  exposed  the 
unscrupulous  nature  of  Western  ag- 
gression. The  Dutch,  who  kept  us  in- 
107 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


formed  of  the  European  encroachment 
on  Asia,  did  not  hesitate  to  enhance  the 
value  of  their  friendship  by  painting 
the  deeds  of  other  Western  nations  in 
the  darkest  colors.  In  fact,  unfortu- 
nately, we  had  already  had  some  experi- 
ence of  foreign  rapacity  in  the  Russian 
advance  from  the  north. 

It  is  a curious  coincidence  that  the 
first  European  nation — and  let  us  hope 
it  may  be  the  last — whom  we  have  met 
in  battle  array  is  the  power  whose  acts 
first  warned  us  of  the  possibility  of  for- 
eign complications.  Russia,  sweeping 
down  from  Siberia  and  Kamchatka,  long 
ago  laid  her  hands  upon  our  territory  of 
Sakhalin  and  the  Kurile  Islands.  In 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
Russians  committed  ravages  in  Yezo 
itself,  and  in  1806  the  Tokugawas  had 
to  place  a military  governor  in  Hako- 
108 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


date  to  guard  against  their  further  dep- 
redations. Alarming  stories  of  North- 
ern encroachments  were  poured  into  our 
excited  ears,  and  many  daimios  offered 
of  themselves  to  chase  back  the  intrud- 
ers. In  1830  Nariaki  of  Mito,  a pow- 
erful prince  of  the  Tokugawa  family, 
proposed  to  settle  in  Yezo  with  all  his 
retainers  and  the  entire  population  of 
his  daimiate.  He  melted  all  the  bronze 
bells  of  the  temples  in  his  territory,  cast- 
ing a number  of  immense  cannon,  and 
drilled  his  samurai  in  preparation  for 
an  emergency.  His  zeal  was,  however, 
misconstrued  by  the  Tokugawa  govern- 
ment and  he  was  obliged  to  abdicate  in 
favor  of  his  son  and  remain  in  retire- 
ment. Russophobes  were  imprisoned 
for  spreading  false  alarms,  and  many 
died  in  confinement.  It  is  interesting 
to  find  among  some  of  their  memoirs 
109 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


prophecies  of  Russian  aggrandizement 
in  Asia  which  have  been  but  too  truly 
fulfilled. 

The  appearance  of  American  war- 
ships in  the  bay  of  Yedo  was  a mighty 
shock.  Hitherto  the  alarms  of  foreign 
attack  had  meant  but  little  to  the  coun- 
try at  large,  for  it  was  a long  cry  to 
Hakodate  or  Nagasaki;  but  now  within 
a day’s  march  of  the  city  of  Yedo  lay 
the  black  hulks  of  a formidable  fieet 
whose  admiral  refused  to  retire  until  a 
treaty  was  signed.  Recollection  of  the 
Tartar  armada  fiashed  through  the 
minds  of  our  grandfathers.  Was  the 
samurai  to  be  intimidated  in  his  own 
waters?  Was  not  the  divine  land  al- 
ways prepared  to  repel  an  invasion? 
What  right  had  a foreign  nation  to  im- 
pose a commerce  which  we  did  not  want, 
a friendship  which  we  did  not  ask?  To 
110 


THE  WHITE  DISASTER 


arms!  Jhoi!  Jhoi!  Away  with  the 
barbarians!  The  alarm-bells  clanged 
throughout  the  country.  Foam-cov- 
ered riders  rushed  through  every  castle 
gate,  spreading  the  momentous  news. 
Spears  were  torn  from  their  racks  and 
ancient  armor  was  eagerly  dragged 
from  dust-covered  caskets.  Night  and 
day  could  be  heard  the  clanging  of  steel 
on  anvils  forging  the  accoutrements  of 
war.  The  old  prince  of  Mito  was  sum- 
moned from  his  hermitage  to  take  com- 
mand, and  his  cannon  lined  the  principal 
points  of  defense.  Buddhists  wore  away 
their  rosaries  in  invoking  Kartikiya,  the 
war-god,  and  Shinto  priests  fasted  while 
they  called  on  the  sea  and  the  tempest 
to  destroy  the  invader. 

The  historic  spirit  that  had  been 
smoldering  in  our  national  conscious- 
ness only  waited  for  this  moment  to 
111 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


burst  forth  in  a fiery  expression  of 
unity.  Custom  and  formalism  were 
alike  forgotten  in  this  hour  of  common 
danger,  and  for  the  first  time  in  two 
hundred  years  the  daimios  were  asked 
by  the  Tokugawa  government  to  delib- 
erate over  a matter  of  state.  For  the 
first  time  in  seven  centuries  the  Shogun 
sent  a special  envoy  to  the  Mikado  to 
consult  about  the  policy  of  the  empire, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
our  nation,  the  high  and  the  low  alike 
were  invited  to  offer  suggestions  as  to 
what  steps  should  be  taken  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  ancestral  land.  We  be- 
came one,  and  the  Night  of  Asia  fled 
forever  before  the  rays  of  the  Rising 
Sun. 


112 


VI 

THE  CABINET  AND  THE  BOUDOIR 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  timely  ar- 
rival of  the  American  Embassy 
and  the  determined  attitude  which  it 
took  in  regard  to  Japan’s  relations  with 
the  outside  world,  we  might  have  en- 
tered upon  an  era  of  internal  discord 
culminating  in  a civil  war  far  worse 
than  anything  that  preceded  the  Resto- 
ration of  1868.  The  immediate  effect 
of  the  arrival  of  the  American  Embassy 
was  to  reconsolidate  the  fast- waning 
power  of  the  Tokugawa  government. 
Putting  in  abeyance  all  minor  matters 
of  dispute,  the  entire  nation  looked  to 
113 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


the  Shogun,  as  the  representative  of  all 
existing  authority,  to  lead  the  forces  of 
Japan  against  what  was  regarded  as  a 
Western  invasion.  Thus  the  Toku- 
gawa  government  was  given  a new 
lease  of  life  and  its  final  overthrow 
postponed  for  fifteen  years,  during 
which  time  ultra-reformists  were  kept 
from  running  riot  and  the  nation  was 
given  a chance  to  prepare  itself  for  the 
momentous  change  which  was  to  come. 

Had  the  Tokugawas  better  under- 
stood their  own  position,  they  might 
under  this  new  condition  of  affairs, 
have  retained  their  power  for  an  in- 
definite period  of  time;  but,  unfortu- 
nately for  them,  there  developed  out  of 
the  rivalry  between  the  cabinet  and  the 
boudoir  an  element  of  discord  which 
brought  about  the  ultimate  downfall  of 
the  entire  Tokugawa  system. 

114 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


Like  all  Eastern  monarchies,  the  To- 
kugawa  shogunate  led  a twofold  exist- 
ence, that  of  the  outer  ministry  and  that 
of  the  inner  household.  Of  these  two 
modes  of  expression,  the  former  exhib- 
its the  sovereign  as  one  who  represents 
the  united  political  wisdom  of  the  coun- 
try handed  down  through  a long  suc- 
cession of  experiences,  the  latter  as  an 
autocrat  whose  will  is  law.  The  ideal 
ruler,  who  stopped  in  the  midst  of  a ban- 
quet to  listen  to  the  grievances  of  his 
people  and  preferred  the  discourse  of 
sour-visaged  councilors  to  the  sweet 
music  of  the  court  beauties,  confined 
himself  exclusively  to  the  first  role.  But 
even  in  Confucian  lands  human  nature 
is  weak.  The  fortunes  of  a dynasty 
have  often  fiuctuated  with  the  adher- 
ence of  its  representative  to  one  or  the 
other  of  these  policies ; and  it  is  a signifi- 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


cant  fact  that  in  Chinese  history  we  find 
the  preponderance  of  the  household  in- 
fiuence  always  resulting  in  rebellion, 
whereas  that  of  the  cabinet  is  over- 
throwui  only  by  the  aggression  of  some 
foreign  power.  In  more  recent  days  a 
sort  of  compromise  has  generally  been 
effected  between  these  influences,  virtu- 
ally creating  a twofold  expression  of 
the  sovereign  will.  This  arrangement 
has  occasioned  many  awkward  compli- 
cations, especially  where  diplomatic  re- 
lations with  foreign  nations  have  been 
concerned : the  household  may  deny 
what  the  cabinet  has  affirmed,  and  vice 
versa. 

The  power  of  the  Chinese  imperial 
household,  to  whose  deliberations,  ac- 
cording to  Celestial  customs,  no  male 
was  admitted,  was  often  wielded  by  the 
Empress  or  some  lady  politician  who 
116 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


from  her  boudoir  pulled  the  reins  of  the 
government  to  the  dismay  of  cabinet 
ministers.  Some  of  these  women  were 
j)ossessed  of  remarkable  genius  and  suc- 
ceeded in  assuming  entire  control  of  the 
state.  Empress  Lo  of  the  Hang  and 
Empress  Wu  of  the  Tang  dynasty  are 
well-known  examples  of  the  usurpation 
of  full  sovereignty  by  a woman.  The 
present  Empress  Dowager  of  China 
afF ords  a remarkable  instance  of  the  as- 
cendancy which  the  household  may 
possess  over  the  Tsung-li-yamen,  or  cab- 
inet. 

Under  the  Tokugawa  shogunate 
there  was  constant  friction  between  the 
cabinet  and  the  boudoir.  The  minis- 
ters, chosen  from  among  the  ablest  rep- 
resentatives of  those  daimiates  which 
had  been  created  by  the  Tokugawas, 
strove  to  maintain  the  hereditary  policy 
117 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


of  lyeyasu,  which  had  in  their  eyes  al- 
most the  authority  of  a national  consti- 
tution. They  were  for  the  most  part 
astute  statesmen  who  thoroughly  un- 
derstood the  spirit  of  the  nation,  and 
never,  in  spite  of  their  absolutism,  out- 
raged the  feelings  of  the  public.  It  was 
owing  to  their  influence  that  the  Sho- 
gun, even  if  personally  of  weak  charac- 
ter, generally  commanded  the  respect 
of  his  subjects.  When,  however,  the 
Shogun  fell  under  the  influence  of  the 
boudoir,  he  became  the  hated  despot 
who,  regardless  of  pubhc  opinion, 
passed  measures  inimical  to  the  national 
welfare.  Unfortunately,  in  these  cases 
the  cabinet  made  but  slight  protest, 
for  the  code  of  the  samurai  forbade  re- 
sistance to  the  will  of  the  overlord. 

The  ladies  of  Yedo  Castle  had  been 
active  participators  in  the  Tokugawa 
118 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


rule  even  in  the  time  of  lyeyasu,  who 
found  among  them  many  trusted 
friends  and  able  councilors.  It  formed 
a part  of  his  system  to  send  them  on  se- 
cret and  delicate  missions,  and  they  had 
come  to  be  a well-recognized  power  in 
the  government  of  his  successors.  In 
the  case  of  a shogun  at  all  inclined  to  be 
autocratic,  the  ladies  surrounding  his 
private  life  exerted  an  immense  influ- 
ence. Either  in  the  person  of  his 
mother,  his  wife,  his  nurse,  or  his  favor- 
ite, they  so  constantly  influenced  his 
feelings  and  sought  to  mold  his  ac- 
tions that  he  needed  to  be  a man  of  very 
strong  character  to  remain  untram- 
meled by  these  silken  bonds.  They 
possessed  a hereditary  policy  of  their 
own,  which,  based  on  woman’s  instinct 
of  conservatism  and  hatred  of  compro- 
mise, was  the  dread  of  all  cabinet  minis- 
119 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ters  who  attempted  reforms.  Their  in- 
terference was  not  like  the  temporary 
meddling  of  a IMadame  Pompadour  or 
a Duchesse  de  Montespan,  but  that  of  a 
whole  line  of  female  cardinals.  It  was 
owing  to  the  antagonism  of  the  boudoir 
that  the  Tokugawa  statesman  Rakuwo 
failed  to  accomplish  his  proposed  reor- 
ganization of  local  government.  It 
was  through  their  influence  that  Mid- 
zuno-Echizen  was  prevented  from  en- 
forcing his  sumptuary  laws,  which  aimed 
at  the  correction  of  many  existent 
abuses.  During  the  closing  years  of  the 
Tokugawa  government  many  wise  mea- 
sures proposed  by  the  cabinet  met  with 
defeat  owing  to  the  ascendancy  in 
power  of  the  boudoir. 

At  the  time  of  the  flrst  American  Em- 
bassy, the  reigning  Shogun,  twelfth  of 
his  line,  was  a J^oung  and  weak  prince 
120 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


who  had,  however,  in  the  person  of  Abe- 
Isenokami,  an  able  prime  minister  who 
showed  a remarkable  grasp  of  the  situa- 
tion and  inaugurated  that  enlightened 
policy  to  which  Japan  owes  her  present 
position.  The  real  significance  of  his 
acts  has  been  quite  obscured  beneath  a 
mass  of  conflicting  criticism  and  the 
ignominy  which  attaches  to  the  states- 
men of  a fallen  dynasty.  Even  his  ne- 
gotiation of  a treaty  of  amity  with 
Commodore  Perry  in  the  face  of  a dis- 
senting majority  has  been  minimized 
by  his  detractors,  yet  it  was  this  treaty 
which  first  brought  us  in  touch  with  the 
rest  of  the  world.  His  moderation  was 
not  cowardice ; if  he  had  allowed  himself 
to  be  carried  away  by  the  belligerent 
spirit  which  animated  the  daimios, 
Japan  might  have  made  a pitiful  exhi- 
bition of  herself.  A refusal  to  treat 
121 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


with  the  Embassy  would  probably  have 
resulted  in  a bombardment,  and  in  spite 
of  the  fiery  bravery  of  the  samurai, 
what  would  their  old-fashioned  cannon 
and  fortifications  have  availed  against 
the  well-equipped  Americans?  It  is 
due  to  the  full  recognition  by  Abe- 
Isenokami  of  our  unpreparedness  for 
war  that  Japan  was  saved  from  any 
such  disaster.  Our  sincere  thanks  are 
also  due  to  the  American  admiral,  who 
showed  infinite  patience  and  fairness  in 
his  negotiations.  Oriental  nations  never 
forget  a kindness,  and  international 
kindnesses  are  unfortunately  extremely 
rare.  The  name  of  Commodore  Perry 
has  become  so  dear  to  us  that,  on  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  arrival,  the 
people  erected  a monument  at  the  spot 
where  he  landed. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Abe- 
122 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


Isenokami  realized  the  full  importance 
of  foreign  intercourse, or  even  welcomed 
it.  Like  other  men  of  his  time,  he 
merely  considered  it  as  a necessary  evil. 
His  knowledge  of  the  West  was  but 
scanty,  and  he  left  the  burden  of  treating 
with  the  Americans  to  his  minister  of  for- 
eign affairs,  Hotta-Bitchiunokami,  who 
later  succeeded  to  the  premiership  after 
the  death  of  Abe.  He  recognized  nev- 
ertheless how  necessary  it  was  for  Ja- 
pan to  acquire  Western  knowledge,  so 
that  she  might  be  able  to  defend  herself 
against  foreign  invasion.  This  he  was 
at  length  able  to  impress  upon  the  To- 
kugawa  authorities,  and  the  warlike 
daimios  were  prevailed  upon  to  keep 
quiet  during  his  lifetime.  He  opened, 
under  government  patronage,  a school 
in  which  various  branches  of  foreign 
science  were  for  the  first  time  openly 
123 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


taught:  the  present  Imperial  Univer- 
sity of  Tokio  is  a development  from 
this  school.  Hitherto  the  pursuit  of 
foreign  knowledge  except  that  of  medi- 
cine had  been  interdicted,  and  students 
had  been  obliged  to  do  their  work  in 
secret  and  under  great  difficulties. 
X'ow,  however,  any  one  who  proved  him- 
self worthy  was  promoted  and  en- 
couraged in  his  work,  while  our  soldiers 
were  trained  in  the  Dutch  and  French 
systems  of  drill.  Both  war-ships  and 
merchant  vessels  were  ordered  from 
Holland,  and  young  samurai  were  sent 
to  study  their  construction  and  manage- 
ment; this  was  the  beginning  of  the 
present  Japanese  nav}\  The  prohibi- 
tion against  building  ships  beyond  a 
certain  size  was  revoked,  and  many 
daimios,  like  those  of  Mito  and  Sat- 
suma,  vied  in  constructing  them. 

124^ 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


The  main  idea  of  Abe-Isenokami 
seemed  to  have  been  to  consolidate  the 
Tokugawa  rule  on  a new  basis.  He  ap- 
pears to  have  appreciated  the  fact  that  a 
great  change  had  come  over  the  nation, 
and  that  the  fast-decaying  prestige  of 
the  Tokugawa  government  could  be 
saved  from  complete  destruction  only  by 
the  assimilation  of  new  energy.  It  was 
his  intention  to  make  the  shogunate  the 
center  of  all  the  forces  that  moved  the 
empire.  It  was  with  this  idea  that  he 
initiated  the  custom  of  approaching  the 
Mikado  and  the  assembly  of  daimios 
on  all  questions  of  state:  a great  mis- 
take in  the  eyes  of  Tokugawa  histori- 
ans. He  strengthened  the  allegiance 
of  the  lord  of  Satsuma,  most  powerful 
of  the  daimios,  by  bringing  about  the 
marriage  of  his  daughter  to  the  Sho- 
gun. He  kept  the  old  prince  of  Mito 
125 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


in  good  humor  by  making  active  prepa- 
rations for  war.  He  corrected  many 
existing  abuses,  instituted  reforms  in 
administration,  appointed  able  men 
even  from  the  lower  ranks  of  the  samu- 
rai to  responsible  positions,  and  did  all 
he  could  for  the  revival  of  Tokugawa 
prestige. 

Next  to  the  foreign  question  the  most 
vital  problem  of  the  day  was  as  to  who 
should  succeed  to  the  shogunate  on  the 
death  of  the  present  incumbent,  a child- 
less and  confirmed  invalid.  Indeed,  this 
latter  question  proved  itself  perhaps 
the  more  important  of  the  two,  for  the 
ultimate  downfall  of  the  Tokugawas 
resulted  from  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  finally  settled.  Among  the  Toku- 
gawa princes  Keiki,  the  fourth  son  of 
the  old  prince  of  Mito,  seemed  the  most 
suitable  candidate  for  the  succession. 

126 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


He  was  adored  by  the  daimios  and 
samurai,  not  only  on  account  of  his 
father,  but  for  his  own  fine  personality 
and  ability.  His  devotion  to  the  Mi- 
kado was  well  known,  and  it  was  said 
that  the  court  of  Kioto  would  be 
pleased  to  have  him  as  shogun.  Abe 
saw  in  Keiki’s  succession  a great  possi- 
bility for  solidifying  the  Tokugawa 
rule,  as  an  able  shogun  backed  by  the 
daimios  and  the  Kioto  court,  might 
accomplish  almost  anything.  There 
was  but  one  difficulty  in  the  way  of  his 
appointment,  and  that  was  that  the 
present  Shogun  and  the  ladies  of  his 
court  disliked  him.  As  a samurai  and 
vassal,  Abe’s  preeminent  duty  was  to 
obey  the  wishes  of  his  master,  while  as  a 
minister  he  recognized  the  power  of  the 
ladies  of  Yedo  Castle.  He  knew  that 
to  the  conservative  policy  of  the  bou- 
127 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


doir  his  various  innovations  were  dis- 
tasteful in  the  extreme,  and  that  it 
feared  the  appointment  of  a strong- 
minded  shogun,  such  as  Keiki  promised 
to  he,  who  might  refuse  to  become  a 
mere  puppet  in  its  hands.  On  this  ac- 
count Abe  dared  not  show  his  hand,  for 
he  was  aware  of  the  great  power  which 
the  boudoir  could  bring  to  bear  upon 
the  cabinet  to  overthrow  all  its  efforts 
toward  a reorganization  of  the  Toku- 
gawa  rule.  His  attitude  toward  the 
problem  of  succession  was  so  cautious 
as  to  appear  almost  indecisive.  Had  he 
been  spared  a few  years  longer,  he  might 
have  accomplished  his  object;  but  in 
1857  he  succumbed  to  a short  illness 
and  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine. 
Thus  perished  the  last  great  statesman 
who  might  have  retrieved  the  sinking 
fortunes  of  the  Tokugawas. 

128 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


Hotta-Bitchiunokami,  who  succeeded 
Abe  as  prime  minister,  although  he  did 
not  possess  the  same  ability,  tried  to  fol- 
low out  the  policy  of  his  predecessor. 
He  did  not  command  the  respect  of  the 
Kioto  court  and  unwittingly  alienated 
the  affections  of  the  daimios.  He  was 
almost  without  supporters  by  the  time 
he  left  Yedo,  in  the  spring  of  1858,  to 
obtain  the  imperial  ratification  to  the 
new  treaty  whose  terms  had  been  drawn 
up  by  him  and  the  American  consul, 
Townsend  Harris.  Times  were  indeed 
changed  when  a Tokugawa  prime  min- 
ister was  obliged  to  go  in  person  to 
Kioto  to  answer  the  queries  of  those 
court  nobles  who  had  formerly  trem- 
bled in  his  presence.  But  the  Kioto 
couii:  had  already  tasted  power  and 
would  fain  drink  to  the  full.  To  the 
members  of  the  imperial  court,  so  long 
129 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


isolated  from  participation  in  affairs  of 
state,  the  question  of  our  national  poli- 
tics was  doubly  unintelligible,  while 
their  conservatism  recoiled  from  the 
very  mention  of  foreign  intercourse.  It 
was  a difficult  task  for  Hotta,  who  sin- 
cerely believed  in  the  necessity  of  for- 
eign intercourse  and  trade,  to  explain 
these  things  to  a court  which  heard  of 
them  for  the  first  time,  and  consequently 
his  mission  ended  in  failure.  They 
asked  many  perplexing  questions  and 
could  not  understand  why  the  citizens 
of  a foreign  nation  should  not  obey  the 
laws  of  the  country  in  which  they  came 
to  live. 

The  unpopularity  of  Hotta  afforded 
an  opportunity  for  the  boudoir  to  ob- 
tain control  of  the  government,  and  dur- 
ing his  sojourn  in  Kioto  the  ladies  of 
Yedo  Castle  replaced  him  by  a pre- 
130 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


mier  who  had  agreed  to  side  with  them 
in  the  choice  of  a future  shogun.  The 
new  minister,  lyi-Kamon,  lord  of  Hi- 
kone,  was  the  last  exponent  of  Toku- 
gawa  autocracy:  he  it  was  who  accom- 
plished the  terrible  coup  d’etat  of  1859. 
Though  a choice  of  the  boudoir,  and 
representative  of  its  policy,  Hikone 
was  possessed  of  no  servile  spirit.  He 
was  a loyal  daimio  of  the  old  type, 
ready  to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  his 
liege  through  fire  or  water.  Descended 
from  the  greatest  general  among  the 
forces  of  lyeyasu,  his  traditional  loy- 
alty rebelled  at  the  encroachments  of 
the  Kioto  court  and  the  daimios  upon 
the  time-honored  prestige  of  the  Toku- 
gawas.  To  him  the  question  of  suc- 
cession to  the  shogunate  was  purely  a 
family  matter  for  the  Tokugawas  to 
settle,  and  one  in  which  no  one  else  had 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


any  right  to  interfere.  To  him,  the 
signing  of  treaties  with  foreign  nations 
was  well  within  the  prerogative  in- 
trusted to  the  Shogun  from  ancient 
days,  and  it  was  a mistake  to  have  ever 
consulted  the  court  nobles  or  the  dai- 
mios  about  it.  He  recognized  the  fact 
that  the  country  was  undergoing  a 
crisis,  but  believed  that  with  firmness  the 
authority  of  the  Tokugawas  could  again 
be  made  thoroughly  autocratic.  It  was 
with  this  determination  that,  in  the 
summer  of  1858,  he  answered  the  sum- 
mons of  the  dying  Shogun,  who  had 
been  urged  to  send  for  him  by  the  ladies 
of  Yedo  Castle. 

The  first  act  of  Hikone  after  accept- 
ing the  premiership  was  to  declare  the 
young  prince  lyemochi,  of  the  house  of 
Kishiu,  who  had  been  the  choice  of  the 
dying  Shogun,  ruler  instead  of  Keiki 
132 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


of  Mito,  the  candidate  of  the  daimios. 
lyemochi,  who  was  but  thirteen  at  the 
time  of  his  appointment,  ruled  as  the 
thirteenth  Shogun  of  the  Tokugawas 
until  the  year  1866,  when  he  died  and 
was  succeeded  by  Keiki.  Hikone’s  sec- 
ond act  was  publicly  to  disgrace  those 
daimios  who  had  been  recognized  lead- 
ers of  the  opposition  in  regard  to  the 
question  of  succession.  The  old  prince 
of  Mito  and  the  lord  of  Echizen  were 
forced  to  resign  their  offices,  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Abe  party,  from  Hotta 
downward,  were  degraded  in  rank. 
His  third  act  was  to  sign  commercial 
treaties  with  various  Western  nations, 
in  utter  disregard  of  the  wishes  of  the 
Mikado,  to  whom  a report  of  his  actions 
was  sent  by  the  common  post. 

All  these  measures,  and  especially  the 
last,  were  in  the  nature  of  bravado 
133 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


against  national  sentiment.  The  court 
highly  resented  the  audacity  of  the 
new  Toloigawa  minister,  and  Kioto  be- 
came the  center  where  emissaries  of 
the  disaffected  daimios  met  to  conspire 
and  plan  countermoves.  The  prince 
of  jMito  received  imperial  instructions 
to  call  an  assemblage  of  the  daimios 
to  reform  the  Tokugawa  cabinet.  Hi- 
kone,  who  watched  all  these  proceed- 
ings through  his  spies,  was  not  slow  to 
move.  In  the  spring  of  1859  nearly 
forty  of  the  more  prominent  agita- 
tors were  arrested  and  either  beheaded 
or  imprisoned  for  high  treason.  All 
were  famous  men  of  the  time,  among 
whom  were  included  scholars,  poets, 
and  artists.  One  court  lady,  also  im- 
plicated, was  exiled.  Many  of  the 
kuges  were  compelled  to  shave  their 
heads  and  retire  from  the  world.  The 
134 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


most  deplorable  result  of  this  coup  d’etat 
was  the  loss  to  Japan  of  a great  num- 
ber of  men  of  remarkable  genius. 
Among  those  beheaded  were  Yoshida- 
Shoyin  of  Choshiu,  precursor  and  in- 
spirer  of  Kido  and  Marquis  Ito,  and 
Hashimoto-Sanai  of  Echizen,  a states- 
man of  a Mazzini-like  intellect,  for 
whose  death  alone  the  Tokugawa  gov- 
ernment was  said  to  have  deserved  its 
downfall.  Our  Garibaldi,  the  great 
Saigo  of  Satsuma,  had  a hairbreadth  es- 
cape from  the  hands  of  Hikone’s  min- 
ions. 

This  sudden  display  of  despotism 
quelled  the  national  spirit  for  a time, 
but  the  silence  which  followed  was  omi- 
nous. Assassination  always  lurks  in 
the  shadow  of  an  absolute  tyranny.  In 
the  late  spring  of  1860  it  was  snowing 
heavily  and  the  light  flakes  mingled 
135 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


with  the  falling  cherry-blossoms.  The 
road  from  the  palace  of  the  lord  of 
Hikone  to  the  Sakurada  gate  of  Yedo 
Castle  was  completely  deserted  as  lyi- 
Kamon  and  his  unsuspecting  retinue 
passed  on  their  way  to  pay  the  usual 
morning  homage  to  the  Shogun.  Sud- 
denly they  were  attacked  by  seventeen 
ronins,  mostly  of  the  Mito  clan,  and 
Hikone  was  killed  almost  before  his 
body-guard  had  time  to  draw  their 
swords.  The  assassins  fell  upon  their 
own  weapons,  leaving  a few  of  their 
comrades  to  explain  to  the  nearest  au- 
thorities that  their  deed  had  been  a 
stroke  for  national  liberty  and  not  an 
act  of  private  vengeance. 

Deplorable  as  this  tragedy  was,  it 
had  a helpful  effect  on  the  country,  and 
showed  that  reawakened  Japan  was 
determined  to  resist  to  the  utmost  any 
136 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


attempts  at  the  reenforcement  of  des- 
potism. Perhaps  a justification  of 
such  acts  lies  in  the  fact  that  assas- 
sination is  the  only  weapon  of  a dis- 
armed patriotism.  No  constitutional 
protest  would  have  availed  against 
the  iron  sway  of  Tokugawa  autoc- 
racy : yet  its  icy  structure  melted 
away  like  the  snows  of  Sakurada  be- 
neath the  warm  blood  of  the  devoted 
ronins. 

A profound  feeling  of  uneasiness 
possessed  the  nation,  and  the  popular 
imagination  was  excited  in  various 
ways  by  those  who  had  at  heart  the  com- 
plete restoration  of  authority  to  the  Mi- 
kado. Placards  denouncing  the  usur- 
pation of  the  Shogun  were  posted  in 
public  places  by  invisible  hands.  Mys- 
tic tablets  foretelling  the  doom  of  the 
Tokugawas  were  reported  to  have  been 
137 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


wafted  from  the  heavens  to  various 
parts  of  the  empire.  JNIasked  bands 
waylaid  the  official  mail  and  intercepted 
the  transport  of  government  revenue, 
the  money  being  given  to  the  poor.  A 
great  number  of  samurai  forsook  their 
liege  lords  and  assembled  in  Kioto  to 
offer  their  swords  for  thje  service  of 
the  Mikado.  The  acts  of  these  ronins 
were  characterized  more  by  symbolic 
demonstration  than  by  open  violence 
against  the  shogunate.  To  cite  one  in- 
stance of  their  methods:  a band  of  ro- 
nins entered  the  mausoleum  of  the 
Ashikagas  and  decapitated  the  statues 
of  the  thirteen  shoguns  of  that  dynasty, 
displaying  their  heads  near  the  Shi  jo 
bridge.  This  childish  act  had  a strange 
influence  over  the  Japanese  mind,  with 
its  Oriental  love  of  symbolism,  and  was 
even  more  potent  than  the  Sakurada 
138 


CABINET  AND  BOUDOIR 


affair  in  arousing  the  feelings  of  the 
people.  It  spared  us  the  horror  of  an 
assassination,  yet  had  all  the  ghastly 
eloquence  of  one. 

After  the  death  of  Hikone  the  Toku- 
gawa  cabinet  no  longer  possessed  a 
minister  able  to  cope  with  the  situation, 
and  its  attempts  at  popular  concilia- 
tion were  interpreted  as  confessions 
of  weakness.  Ando-Tsushimanokami, 
who  succeeded  Hikone  as  senior  mem- 
ber of  the  cabinet,  prevailed  upon  the 
Kioto  court  to  bestow  the  hand  of  the 
Princess  Kazunomiya,  sister  of  the 
Mikado,  on  the  Shogun.  This  political 
marriage  was  celebrated  in  1861  with 
great  pomp,  but  did  not  lessen  the 
existing  tension.  Public  sentiment 
against  the  Tokugawas  had  reached 
such  a point  that  fictitious  stories  about 
the  maltreatment  of  the  royal  bride  were 
readily  believed.  The  prime  minister 
139 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


was  even  accused  of  holding  the  prin- 
cess as  a hostage  for  the  acquiescence  of 
the  court  in  the  despotic  measures  of 
his  predecessor.  The  following  year 
he  was  attacked  by  ronins  while  on  his 
way  to  the  palace  of  the  Shogun,  but  the 
would-be  assassins  were  unsuccessful  in 
their  attempt  on  his  life.  Ando,  who 
was  a fine  swordsman,  cut  down  two  of 
his  assailants  while  his  body-guard  des- 
patched the  rest.  These  repeated  at- 
tacks on  the  Tokugawa  ministers  were 
significant  of  the  tendency  of  events, 
and  forty  of  the  more  powerful  dai- 
mios  received  an  imperial  summons  to 
protect  Kioto.  The  throne  once  more 
became  the  real  seat  of  authority,  and 
Yedo  Castle  but  the  home  of  its  chief 
vassal.  The  boudoir,  in  attempting  to 
crush  the  cabinet,  had  dealt  a death- 
blow to  the  entire  Tokugawa  govern- 
ment. 


140 


VII 


THE  TRANSITION 

The  eight  years  that  intervene  be- 
tween the  death  of  Hikone  in 
1860  and  the  Restoration  of  1868,  when 
his  Majesty  the  present  Emperor  of 
Japan  assumed  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment, are  memorable  for  the  wealth  of 
energy  which  was  displayed  by  the  na- 
tion in  adopting  a rapid  series  of  po- 
litical changes.  The  dragon-spirit  of 
change  was  constantly  urging  the  na- 
tion after  new  ideals.  Even  the  busy 
years  that  followed  the  Restoration 
could  not  equal  in  activity  this  short 
period,  into  which  were  compressed  the 
germs  of  all  later  movements.  We  are 
141 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


reminded  of  those  great  transition 
periods  of  European  history  when 
forms  become  formless  in  order  to  cre- 
ate new  forms.  Like  the  initiators  of 
the  Italian  Renaissance,  we  had  to  solve 
the  double  problem  of  restoring  the 
old  while  absorbing  the  new.  Like  the 
much-abused  French  Revolution,  so 
rich  in  idealization,  our  Restoration  is 
characterized  by  an  exuberant  desire 
for  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  its  en- 
thusiasts. It  was  due  to  this  feeling  of 
patriotic  ardor  that  the  samurai  vol- 
untarily gave  up  his  swords,  the 
daimio  his  fiefs,  and  the  Shogun  his 
hereditary  authority. 

The  turmoil  of  the  Restoration  was 
not  confined  to  Kioto  and  Yedo,  but 
found  expression  in  all  parts  of  the 
empire.  Everywhere  families  were  di- 
vided by  their  varying  allegiance  to  the 
142 


THE  TRANSITION 


Mikado  or  to  the  Shogun,  the  son  op- 
posing the  father,  the  younger  brother 
the  elder.  Kioto  became  the  headquar- 
ters of  intrigue  and  the  breeding-place 
of  extreme  views.  The  Restoration 
had  really  begun  when  the  daimios  were 
summoned  to  protect  the  imperial  per- 
son, and  now  the  court,  strengthened 
by  their  presence  at  Kioto,  began  to 
dictate  terms  to  the  Shogun.  There 
was  no  question  about  the  restitution  of 
supreme  authority  to  the  Mikado,  for 
this  was  a consummation  universally  de- 
sired and  already  half  accomplished; 
but  as  regards  the  method  of  adminis- 
tering the  government  there  were  many 
opinions.  Two  great  parties,  the  Fed- 
eralists and  the  Imperialists,  each  rep- 
resentative of  a different  political  sys- 
tem, gathered  about  the  throne.  These 
alternately  gained  the  upper  hand  until 
143 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


both  became  united  in  a third  party,  the 
Unionists,  which  laid  the  foundations 
of  our  present  administrative  system. 

The  ascendancy  of  these  different 
parties  each  in  its  turn  marks  the  suc- 
cessive steps  by  which  the  political  life 
of  the  nation  was  returning  to  its  an- 
cient form.  We  had  now  reached  a 
point  where  the  possibility  of  assuming 
an  international  position  opened  before 
us  a mighty  vista.  The  dragon  was 
curving  backward  for  his  final  spring. 
It  was  a curious  example  of  social  em- 
bryology that  Japan  should  have  as- 
sumed atavistic  forms  before  its  rebirth. 

Of  the  two  original  parties,  the  Fed- 
eralists, under  the  leadership  of  the 
lord  of  Satsuma,  represented  the  vari- 
ous daimios.  Their  position  prevented 
them  from  welcoming  any  abrupt 
change  in  the  government,  and  they 
144 


THE  TRANSITION 


hoped  for  some  sort  of  federation 
whereby  they  might  control  the  sho- 
gunate.  Their  ideal  government  was 
that  of  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
when,  before  the  consolidation  of  the 
Tokugawa  shogunate,  the  newly  uni- 
fied empire  was  governed  by  a council 
made  up  of  five  of  the  most  powerful 
daimios;  in  fact,  they  wished  for  a re- 
vival of  the  feudal  age.  Their  for- 
eign policy  made  a virtue  of  necessity, 
and,  like  the  shogunate,  accepted  the 
inevitable  in  commercial  relationships 
with  the  West. 

The  Imperialists  sought  their  ideal 
further  back  in  our  history  than  the 
Federalists,  and  desired  the  restitution 
of  imperial  bureaucracy  as  it  had  ex- 
isted before  the  feudal  period.  It  was 
not  only  radical,  but  revolutionary  in 
its  propositions,  inasmuch  as  it  aimed 
U5 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


at  the  abolition  of  the  shogunate  and 
even  of  the  daimiates.  Those  who  com- 
posed the  Imperial  party  were  the 
kuges,  hereditarily  connected  with  the 
throne,  the  ronins,  and  the  Shintoists, 
the  ardor  of  the  last  augmented  by  reli- 
gious zeal  for  the  descendant  of  the  Sun 
Goddess.  The  lord  of  Choshiu,  whose 
family  had  long  secretly  nursed  a feud 
with  the  Tokugawas,  also  joined  the 
rank  of  the  Imperialists.  All  of  these 
were  fired  with  a burning  enthusiasm 
for  the  cause  of  the  Mikado.  They  had 
no  foreign  policy  except  that  of  antago- 
nism. This  was  due  not  so  much  to 
their  hatred  of  the  West  as  to  their  ex- 
asperation with  the  shogunate  for 
signing  treaties  with  the  foreigner  re- 
gardless of  the  wishes  of  the  Mikado. 

The  Unionists,  who  later  appeared 
on  the  scene,  were  men  of  advanced 
146 


THE  TRANSITION 


thought  who  considered  that  the  unity 
of  Japan  should  be  accomplished  at 
any  cost,  and  that  the  crisis  through 
which  we  were  passing  involved  inter- 
national as  well  as  national  problems. 
All  had  received  scholastic  training,  for 
the  most  part  in  the  Oyomei  School; 
they  had  also  acquired  a certain  amount 
of  Western  knowledge,  the  assimilation 
of  which  the  liberal  policy  of  Abe- 
Isenokami  had  rendered  possible.  They 
were  to  be  found  even  among  the  Toku- 
gawa  samurai,  the  late  Count  Katsu- 
Awa  being  a noteworthy  example.  The 
main  strength  of  this  party,  however, 
lay  in  the  young  samurai  of  Satsuma, 
Choshiu,  and  Tosa,  whose  patriotism 
furnished  the  backbone  of  New  Japan, 
and  the  survivors  of  whom  now  com- 
mand deep  respect  as  the  “Elder 

Statesmen.” 

11 


147 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


The  Unionists,  second  to  none  in 
their  adoration  of  the  Mikado,  worked 
for  the  full  restoration  of  his  sover- 
eignty; but  their  theory  of  administra- 
tion, in  returning  to  the  democratic 
ideas  of  ancient  China,  stretched  still 
further  back  into  antiquity  even  than 
those  of  the  others.  In  the  idealized 
Confucian  state  all  men  were  equal  and 
the  head  of  the  government  ruled,  not 
on  account  of  his  descent,  but  by  virtue 
of  his  personal  rectitude.  Wisdom  was 
sought  in  a council  of  elders,  and  popu- 
lar opinion  was  consulted  in  various 
ways.  All  should  take  up  arms  against 
an  invasion;  but  as  soon  as  war  ceased 
the  sword  should  be  beaten  again  into 
the  plowshare  and  the  works  of  peace 
resumed.  European  and  American  re- 
publics, as  at  first  understood  by  our 
scholars,  reminded  them  curiously  of 
148 


THE  TRANSITION 


the  Golden  Age  of  the  Celestial  Land. 
In  one  of  the  letters  of  Sakuma-Sho- 
zan,  a noted  Unionist  leader,  he  says, 
“It  is  wonderful  that  among  the  bar- 
barians should  be  preserved  the  laws 
of  the  ancient  sages!’’  Untutored  as 
yet  in  the  darker  side  of  Western  poli- 
tics, they  fell  into  ecstasies  over  those 
achievements  of  modern  nations  which 
seemed  to  them  an  actualization  of  their 
ideals.  In  George  Washington  they 
saw  the  Emperor  Yaou  of  China  re- 
linquishing his  throne  to  the  ablest  citi- 
zen of  the  realm.  Wonder  is  the 
mother  of  knowledge.  Treatises  on 
international  law  were  read  with  the 
same  respect  which  was  rendered  to  the 
codes  of  the  Chow  dynasty.  Montes- 
quieu, with  his  triune  theory  of  gov- 
ernment, was  hailed  as  the  Book  of 
Mencius.  Far  from  despising  the 
149 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


West,  the  Unionists  laid  themselves  at 
its  feet.  It  was  not  the  novelty  but  the 
similarity  of  what  they  found  that  at- 
tracted them.  Sakuma-Shozan  first 
proposed  to  the  authorities  the  employ- 
ment of  European  instructors  in  all 
branches  of  study.  He  was  also  the 
first  Japanese  who  adopted  European 
costume. 

We  may  mention,  in  passing,  that  this 
idiosyncrasy  of  dress  was  actuated  by 
a love  of  symbolism.  It  was  the  ex- 
pression of  a desire  on  the  part  of  the 
progressionist  to  cast  off  the  shackles 
of  the  decadent  East  and  identify 
himself  with  the  advance  of  Western 
civilization.  Our  kimono  meant  lei- 
sure, while  the  European  dress  meant 
activity  and  became  the  uniform  of  the 
army  of  progress,  like  the  chapeau 
rouge  in  revolutionary  France.  Now- 
150 


THE  TRANSITION 


adays  a reaction  has  set  in,  and  native 
costume  is  more  generally  worn  by  the 
progressives.  Few  of  our  ladies  affect 
European  costume  except  at  court. 

Sakuma-Shozan  paid  dearly  for  his 
pro-foreign  leanings:  in  1866  he  was 
assassinated  at  Kioto  by  the  ronins  of 
the  imperial  party.  Yet  despite  con- 
servative antagonism,  Western  know- 
ledge became  more  and  more  sought 
after  as  time  advanced,  until  it  has  now 
become  an  inherent  part  of  our  na- 
tional culture.  It  must  always  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  the  original 
movement  toward  the  acquirement  of 
foreign  knowledge  was  fostered  by  the 
historic  spirit.  If  there  had  been  no 
common  point  of  contact,  an  Oriental 
race  like  ours  would  never  have  adopted 
Occidental  ideas  with  the  enthusiasm 
that  we  did. 


151 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


Of  the  three  parties  above  mentioned, 
the  Federals  were  at  first  in  the  ascen- 
dant. In  1862  two  imperial  embassies, 
escorted  by  the  lords  of  Satsuma 
and  Tosa,  left  Kioto  for  Yedo,  carry- 
ing orders  to  the  Shogun  to  give  the 
higher  positions  under  his  adminis- 
tration to  certain  powerful  daimios, 
and  furthermore  commanding  him  to 
pay  personal  homage  to  the  throne,  a 
ceremony  neglected  since  the  days  of 
the  fourth  Shogun.  The  Tokugawas 
had  now  no  power  to  refuse,  and  as  the 
result  of  these  commands  Prince  Keiki 
was  made  chief  adviser  of  the  Shogun, 
the  lord  of  Nabeshima  his  tutor,  the 
lord  of  Echizen  prime  minister  of  the 
cabinet,  and  the  lord  of  Awa  di- 
rector of  military  affairs.  The  first  ac- 
tion of  the  new  cabinet  was  to  abol- 
ish the  custom  by  which  the  daimios 
152 


THE  TRANSITION 


were  obliged  to  leave  hostages  at 
Yedo  and  they  themselves  periodically 
to  pay  homage  to  the  Shogun,  both 
of  which  usages  formed  so  impor- 
tant a part  of  the  Tokugawa  system. 
Another  of  their  reforms  was  the  re- 
placement of  the  Tokugawa  garrison 
at  Kioto  by  one  under  the  command  of 
a Federal  daimio.  Their  choice  for 
this  position  fell  on  the  lord  of  Aidzu, 
who  later  stood  forth  as  the  champion 
of  the  Federal  policy  after  most  of  the 
other  daimios  had  joined  the  Union- 
ists. 

Beyond  carrying  through  these  re- 
forms, the  Federal  party  accomplished 
but  little.  The  program  of  instituting 
radical  changes  while  preserving  the 
Tokugawa  rule  soon  placed  the  Federal- 
ists in  a dilemma,  while  petty  jealousies 
and  dissensions  began  to  spring  up  in 
153 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


their  ranks.  The  lord  of  Satsuma,  who 
alone  might  have  controlled  the  dai- 
mios,  had  to  return  to  his  territory  on 
account  of  complications  with  the  Eng- 
lish. By  the  spring  of  1863  we  find 
the  Federals  thoroughly  disunited,  all 
of  the  daimios  who  had  taken  office 
the  previous  year  having  resigned  ex- 
cept Prince  Keiki  and  the  lord  of 
Aidzu. 

Meanwhile  the  Imperialists  were  be- 
coming anxious  over  the  turn  of  events. 
To  them  the  daimios  seemed  to  be 
lacking  in  loyalty  to  the  Mikado.  They 
even  suspected  Sastuma  of  trjdng  to 
supplant  the  Tokugawas.  The  Federal 
attitude  of  complacency  toward  the 
foreigners  was  repugnant  to  them  as 
showing  a disregard  of  the  imperial 
wishes.  The  disintegration  of  the  Fed- 
eral party  now  offered  an  opportunity 
154 


THE  TRANSITION 


for  the  Imperialists  to  take  the  helm 
of  state.  In  April,  1863,  they  obtained 
imperial  authority  to  close  the  ports  and 
expel  the  foreigners,  a measure  which 
the  Tokugawas  refused  to  sanction  and 
which  the  daimios  would  not  take 
seriously.  The  Imperialists,  however, 
were  not  daunted  by  this  rebuff,  and 
the  lord  of  Choshiu  showed  his  con- 
tempt of  Tokugawa  authority  by  firing 
at  the  foreign  vessels  which  passed  the 
shores  of  his  territory  in  their  passage 
through  the  Strait  of  Bakan. 

This  rash  act  raised  the  opposition 
of  the  Federal  party  and  caused  its  re- 
consolidation. Seven  of  the  younger 
kuges  were  accused  of  surreptitiously 
obtaining  the  imperial  sanction  to  this 
anti-foreign  demonstration  and  were 
obliged  to  flee  for  their  lives,  while  the 
samurai  and  ronins  of  the  Choshiu  clan 
155 


THE  AAVAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


were  forbidden  the  city  of  Kioto. 
They  attempted  to  take  the  Federal 
guards  of  the  palace  gates  by  surprise 
in  order  to  make  appeal  directly  to  the 
JVIikado,  but  were  repulsed  with  great 
loss.  Attempted  uprisings  in  three 
difF erent  parts  of  the  country  met  with 
failure,  and  the  whole  body  of  Imperial- 
ists had  to  seek  refuge  in  Choshiu.  A 
joint  army  led  by  the  lords  of  Owari 
and  Echizen  soon  surrounded  the  fu- 
gitives and  compelled  the  lord  of 
Choshiu  to  execute  three  of  his  chief 
officers  as  an  atonement  for  his  misde- 
meanor, while  he  was  obliged  to  retire 
into  a monastery  to  await  further  or- 
ders. Owari  and  Echizen  were  not  de- 
sirous of  inflicting  further  punishment, 
and  the  invading  armies  were  soon 
withdrawn.  The  lord  of  Aidzu  was 
dissatisfied  with  this  comparatively 
156 


THE  TRANSITION 


light  form  of  chastisement,  and  pre- 
vailed upon  the  Shogun  to  lead  in  per- 
son a second  invasion  of  Choshiu. 

It  was  now  that  the  Unionist  party 
was  formed.  In  their  opinion,  it  was 
suicidal  for  the  nation  to  be  involved  in 
internal  disputes  when  foreign  inter- 
ference might  be  expected  at  any  time. 
A second  invasion  of  Choshiu,  if  suc- 
cessful, would  reinstate  the  Tokuga- 
was  in  power,  something  which  neither 
the  Federals  nor  the  Imperialists  were 
desirous  of  bringing  about.  The  initia- 
tive came  from  the  lord  of  Tosa,  who 
succeeded  in  reconciling  the  leaders  of 
the  rival  clans  of  Satsuma  and  Cho- 
shiu. A triple  alhance  was  secretly 
formed  by  these  three  daimios. 

The  Tokugawa  army  started  from 
Yedo  for  the  second  invasion  of  Cho- 
shiu without  the  support  of  the  Fed- 
157 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


eral  daimios,  most  of  whom,  with  the 
exception  of  Aidzu,  had  already  fallen 
under  the  influence  of  the  Unionists 
and  lent  only  their  nominal  assistance 
to  the  expedition.  The  golden  fan  of 
lyeyasu,  hereditary  insignia  of  the  To- 
kugawas,  which  had  carried  all  before 
it  in  the  bloody  battles  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  was  at  last  to  meet  with  defeat. 
Outgeneraled  at  every  point,  the  To- 
kugawa  army  was  unable  to  stand 
against  the  determined  soldiers  of 
Choshiu  and  had  to  beat  an  ignominious 
retreat.  To  add  to  the  troubles  of  the 
Tokugawas,  the  Shogun  died  in  the 
winter  of  1866,  shortly  before  the  pass- 
ing away  of  Komei  Tenno,  the  imperial 
father  of  our  reigning  Majesty.  This 
event  gave  an  excuse  to  the  Tokugawas 
for  concluding  a truce,  which,  however, 
virtually  yielded  the  victory  to  the 
158 


THE  TRANSITION 


lord  of  Choshiu.  The  seven  court 
nobles  who  had  sought  refuge  in 
Choshiu  were  allowed  to  return  and 
were  reinstated  in  their  former  rank. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  JNIarquis 
Ito  and  other  students  who  had  been 
in  Western  countries  returned  from 
abroad  and  were  welcomed  by  the 
Unionist  leaders  on  account  of  the 
knowledge  they  had  thus  acquired. 
The  party  was  now  well  equipped  with 
ideas  of  constructive  progress  and  con- 
stitutional government. 

Prince  Keiki,  formerly  a candidate 
for  the  shogunate  and  later  adviser  of 
the  Shogun,  was  himself  caUed  upon  to 
become  the  last  of  the  shoguns,  but  the 
time  had  long  passed  when  he  .might 
have  had  an  opportunity  of  proving  his 
ability.  True  to  the  principles  incul- 
cated by  his  father,  the  prince  of  Mito, 
159 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


his  supreme  devotion  was  to  the  ]\Ii- 
kado,  and  he  was  convinced  of  the  fu- 
tility of  trying  longer  to  maintain  the 
struggling  fortunes  of  his  own  house. 
It  needed  no  persuasion  to  induce  him 
to  give  up  his  title  and  to  restore  entire 
authority  to  the  throne.  He  was,  in 
fact,  unconsciously  a thorough  Union- 
ist at  heart.  His  most  trusted  coun- 
selor, the  late  Count  Katsu-Awa,  was 
one  of  the  Unionist  leaders,  though  the 
rest  of  his  vassals  and  daimios  w^ere, 
like  the  lord  of  Aidzu,  Federals  of  the 
most  pronounced  type.  It  is  said  that 
when,  in  the  fall  of  1867,  the  envoys  of 
the  lord  of  Tosa  came  to  urge  his  res- 
ignation, he  bade  them  wait  and  at  once 
drew  up  the  memorable  document  in 
which  he  relinquished  all  the  powers 
which  had  been  intrusted  to  his  family 
for  nearly  three  hundred  years. 

160 


THE  TRANSITION 


The  lord  of  Aidzu  and  some  of  the 
Tokugawa  samurai  objected  to  this 
sudden  surrender  of  the  shogunate 
and  raised  revolts  in  Osaka  and  the 
northern  provinces.  But,  bereft  of 
their  leader,  the  Shogun,  they  were 
unable  to  make  effective  resistance  to 
the  Unionist  army  under  the  joint 
command  of  the  great  Saigo  of  Sat- 
suma  and  Omura  of  Choshiu.  In  the 
following  year,  after  some  desperate 
battles,  they  were  all  reduced  to  submis- 
sion. Japan  once  more  bowed  to  the 
military  authority  of  the  Mikado.  The 
Restoration  was  complete. 


161 


VIII 


RESTORATION  AND  REFORMATION 

The  Restoration  was  at  the  same  time 
a reformation.  In  emerging  from 
an  Asiatic  hermitage  to  take  our  stand 
upon  the  broad  stage  of  the  world,  we 
were  obliged  to  assimilate  much  that  the 
Occident  offered  for  our  advancement 
and  at  the  same  time  to  resuscitate  the 
classic  ideals  of  the  East.  The  idea  of 
the  reformation  is  clearly  expressed  in 
the  imperial  declaration  of  1868  in 
which  his  present  Majesty,  after  as- 
cending the  throne,  stated  that  national 
obligations  should  be  regarded  from  the 
broad  standpoint  of  universal  humanity. 
As  the  word  signifies,  our  restoration 
162 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


was  essentially  a return.  The  govern- 
ment once  again  assumed  the  form  of  an 
imperial  bureaucracy,  such  as  had  ex- 
isted before  the  rise  of  feudalism  over 
seven  hundred  years  ago.  The  first  act 
of  the  new  government  was  to  reestab- 
lish all  the  ancient  offices,  together  with 
their  former  nomenclature,  while  many 
long  forgotten  functions;  and  ceremonies 
were  revived  and  Shintoism  was  pro- 
claimed as  the  religion  of  the  imperial 
household.  Posthumous  honors  were 
conferred  on  loyalists  who,  like  Masa- 
shige,  had  served  the  cause  of  the  court 
during  the  former  shogunates,  and  the 
descendants  of  many  of  them  were 
ennobled. 

Yet  these  revivals  of  past  conditions 
were  tempered  with  the  new  spirit  of 
freedom  and  equality.  The  Mikado, 
while  pronouncing  Shintoism  to  be  the 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


religion  of  the  household,  granted  lib- 
erty of  conscience  to  the  entire  nation, 
and  Christianity  was  freed  from  the  in- 
terdiction under  which  it  had  lain  since 
the  Jesuit  insurrection  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  class  distinction 
between  nobles,  samurai,  and  common- 
ers was  nominally  retained,  and  the  dai- 
mios  and  kuges  were  given  titular  rank 
according  to  the  five  grades  of  the  old 
Chinese  system.  A new  aristocracy 
even  was  created.  All  class  privileges, 
however,  were  abolished,  and  all,  from 
the  princes  and  the  marquises  down  to 
the  abhorred  yettas  (who  to-day  bear 
the  nickname  of  the  “New  Common- 
ers ’’) , were  made  equal  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  while  examinations  for  the  civil 
service  were  thrown  open  to  every  one. 
The  object  of  those  who  conducted  the 
reformation  was  so  to  fuse  together  the 
164i 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


hardened  strata  of  Toku^awa  social 
life  that  the  entire  nation  might  parti- 
cipate in  the  glory  and  responsibilities  of 
the  Restoration.  There  were  four  main 
lines  along  which  the  work  of  preparing 
the  nation  to  meet  the  problem  of  mod- 
ern life  was  carried.  These  were,  first, 
constitutional  government;  second,  lib- 
eral education;  third,  universal  military 
service;  and  fourth,  the  elevation  of 
womanhood. 

Constitutional  government  has  been 
deemed  impracticable  for  Eastern  na- 
tions, and  in  Turkey  it  was  a sad  failure. 
With  us,  however,  since  the  assembling 
of  our  first  parliament  the  principles 
and  ordinances  of  the  state  have  been  so 
well  carried  out  that  we  can  safely  affirm 
the  experimental  age  to  have  been 
passed  and  constitutional  government  to 
have  become  an  inherent  part  of  our  po- 
165 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


litical  consciousness.  We  may  have  had 
occasional  stormy  debates  and  divisions, 
a phase  of  affairs  not  unknown  in  the 
conduct  of  Western  national  assemblies ; 
but  whenever  threatened  with  foreign 
complications,  all  factions  have  invari- 
ably united  in  support  of  the  cabinet. 
The  successful  working  of  the  new  sys- 
tem ‘ is  partly  due,  no  doubt,  to  an 
inherent  power  of  self-government  ex- 
emplified in  the  administration  of  many 
of  our  previous  institutions,  and  partly 
to  the  fact  that  the  nation  had  long  been 
preparing  for  the  responsibility  of  self- 
government. 

In  1867,  as  soon  as  the  Shogun  had 
resigned  his  office,  the  Unionist  ministry 
created  two  councils,  one  composed  of 
the  leading  daimios  and  kuges,  the 
other  of  representative  samurai  from 
various  daimiates.  When  his  Majesty 
166 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


the  present  Emperor  ascended  the 
throne  in  1868  and  proclaimed  the  Res- 
toration, he  declared  the  establishment  of 
a national  assembly  in  which  important 
affairs  of  state  should  be  decided  by 
pubhc  opinion.  In  1875  a senate  was 
created,  to  which  all  contemplated  legis- 
lation had  to  be  submitted  by  the  cabi- 
net, and  this  was  soon  followed  by  the 
establishment  of  the  Court  of  Final 
Appeal.  Thus  were  inaugurated  the 
three  principal  factors  in  the  conduct  of 
a constitutional  government,  namely, 
the  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial 
bodies.  In  1879  the  senate  passed  a law 
creating  in  each  local  prefecture  an  as- 
sembly in  which  representatives  elected 
by  the  taxpayers  were  to  decide  the 
annual  expenditures  and  taxation  of  the 
province.  In  1881  an  imperial  procla- 
mation announced  that  the  Constitution 
167 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


would  go  into  effect  in  1890,  and  ac- 
cordingly in  February  of  that  year  it 
was  duly  promulgated.  Our  diet  con- 
sists of  the  House  of  Commons  and 
House  of  Peers,  the  latter  an  outgrowth 
of  the  senate  established  in  1875.  It  is 
significant  that  our  Constitution  was 
the  voluntary  gift  of  the  Mikado,  and 
not,  as  in  the  case  of  some  European  na- 
tions, one  forced  from  the  sovereign  by 
the  people.  Consistent  with  Eastern 
traditions,  our  democracy  is  an  accre- 
tion, not  an  eruption. 

The  question  of  education  for  the 
people  held  a prominent  place  in  the 
imperial  declaration  of  1868,  the  Mi- 
kado commanding  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge  from  all  sources  throughout 
the  world.  We  have  already  mentioned 
the  existence  in  Tokugawa  days  of  ele- 
mentary schools  for  the  commoners  and 
168 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


academies  of  learning  for  the  higher 
classes.  These  were  now  systematically 
organized  so  that  they  might  furnish  the 
nation  with  the  knowledge  necessary  for 
carrying  out  the  obligations  of  its  new 
environment.  Elementary  education 
was  made  compulsory  for  all  boys  and 
girls  above  six  years  of  age,  and  normal 
schools  were  established  in  each  of  the 
provinces  to  supply  them  with  teachers. 
In  our  educational  system  of  to-day, 
next  above  the  elementary  schools  come 
the  middle  schools,  in  which  a liberal  edu- 
cation is  given  and  pupils  are  prepared 
for  entering  the  higher  institutions  of 
learning.  There  are  also  special  schools 
for  those  desirous  of  entering  the  navy 
or  army,  agriculture,  industrial  science, 
commerce,  or  the  arts  and  crafts,  while 
the  imperial  university  includes  colleges 
of  law,  literature,  medicine,  engineer- 
169 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ing,  and  science.  Female  education  is 
not  neglected,  though,  in  accordance 
with  Eastern  custom,  it  is  given  sepa- 
rately. A few  years  ago  a ladies’  uni- 
versity was  started  in  Tokio.  The  study 
of  one  of  the  European  languages  is 
compulsory  in  all  except  the  elementary 
schools — that  of  English  being  the  one 
generally  required.  A great  number  of 
Americans  and  Europeans  are  em- 
ployed to  give  instruction,  and  thou- 
sands of  young  men  and  women  study 
abroad  either  at  their  own  or  the  govern- 
ment’s expense.  Our  eagerness  to 
acquire  Western  learning  has  prompted 
hosts  of  our  young  men  to  seek  menial 
work  in  foreign  countries, — service,  ac- 
cording to  Confucian  notions,  not  being 
considered  derogatory.  The  ethical 
training  given  to  the  rising  generation 
is  based  on  the  teachings  of  earlier  days. 

170 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


The  imperial  manifesto  which  formu- 
lated the  national  code  of  morality, 
after  summing  up  the  universal  princi- 
ples of  ethics,  concludes  with  these 
words;  “ These  are  the  teachings  of  our 
imperial  ancestors,  and  this  is  the  path 
followed  by  your  ancestors.”  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  fruits 
of  our  newly  acquired  knowledge  are 
all  consecrated  in  intense  devotion  to 
the  Mikado. 

Our  system  of  military  service  has 
proved  more  potent  than  any  other  fac- 
tor in  strengthening  national  loyalism. 
It  has,  in  fact,  transformed  the  com- 
moner into  a samurai.  Conscription 
had  obtained  in  Japan  long  before  the 
rise  of  feudalism,  and  its  practice  was 
merely  revived  in  1870  on  German  and 
French  lines.  According  to  the  present 
system,  every  male  at  twenty  years  of 
171 


I 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


age  is  liable  to  be  drafted  for  three  years’ 
service  with  the  colors,  and  after  that 
for  a service  of  five  years  each  in  the  first 
and  second  reserves.  In  case  of  extreme 
emergency  the  whole  nation  may  be 
called  to  arms.  The  officers,  trained  in 
special  schools  and  staff  colleges,  come 
mostly  from  samurai  families,  and  their 
traditional  code  of  life  has  permeated 
the  entire  new  army.  For  the  nation  at 
large  the  social  distinction  of  many  cen- 
turies has  thrown  a halo  about  the 
sworded  class,  while  current  fiction  and 
drama  have  for  the  last  fifty  years  so 
idealized  the  patriotic  soldier  that  the 
peasant  conscript  on  entering  the  ranks 
feels  himself  ennobled  not  only  in  his 
own  estimation  but  in  that  of  his  breth- 
ren; he  is  now  a man  of  the  sword,  the 
soul  of  honor.  He  is  fairly  intelligent, 
thanks  to  the  village  school,  soon  mas- 
172 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


tering  his  tactics  and  imbibing  that  pro- 
found sense  of  duty  which  is  the  essence 
of  samuraihood.  At  first,  on  account  of 
his  heretofore  peaceful  life,  there  were 
some  misgivings  about  his  courage ; but 
the  baptism  of  fire  proved  him  able  to 
take  his  place  beside  the  best  of  the  sam- 
urai. The  contempt  of  death  displayed 
by  our  conscripts  is  not  founded,  as  some 
Western  writers  suppose,  on  the  hope  of 
a future  reward.  We  preach  no  Val- 
halla or  Moslem  heaven  awaiting  our 
departed  heroes ; for  the  .teachings  of 
Buddhism  promise  in  the  next  life  but 
a miserable  incarnation  to  the  slayer  of 
man.  It  is  a sense  of  duty  alone  that 
causes  our  men  to  march  to  certain  death 
at  the  word  of  command.  Behind  all 
lies  devotion  to  the  sovereign  and  love 
of  country.  Our  conscript  but  follows 
the  historic  example  of  those  heroes  who 
173 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ever  gave  themselves  as  willing  sacri- 
fices for  the  good  of  the  nation.  If  he 
sometimes  offers  his  blood  too  freely,  it 
is  through  an  exuberance  of  patriotic 
love;  for  love,  like  death,  recognizes  no 
limits. 

Another  important  feature  of  the 
reformation  lay  in  the  exaltation  of 
womanhood.  The  Western  attitude  of 
profound  respect  toward  the  gentler  sex 
exhibits  a beautiful  phase  of  refinement 
which  we  are  anxious  to  emulate.  It  is 
one  of  the  noblest  messages  that  Chris- 
tianity has  given  us.  Christianity  origi- 
nated in  the  East,  and,  except  as  regards 
womanhood,  its  modes  of  thought  are 
not  new  to  Eastern  minds.  As  the  new 
religion  spread  westward  through  Eu- 
rope, it  naturally  became  influenced  by 
the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  various  con- 
verted nations,  so  that  the  poetry  of  the 
174 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


German  forest,  the  adoration  of  the 
Virgin  in  the  middle  centmdes,  the  age 
of  chivalry,  the  songs  of  the  trouba- 
dours, the  delicacy  of  the  Latin  nature, 
and,  above  all,  the  clean  manliood  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  probably  all  con- 
tributed their  share  toward  the  idealiza- 
tion of  woman. 

In  Japan,  woman  has  always  com- 
manded a respect  and  freedom  not  to  be 
found  elsewhere  in  the  East.  We  have 
never  had  a Salic  law,  and  it  is  from  a 
female  divinity,  the  Sun-goddess,  that 
our  Mikado  traces  his  lineage.  During 
many  of  the  most  brilliant  epochs  in  our 
ancient  history  we  were  under  the  rule 
of  a female  sovereign.  Our  Empress 
Zingo  personally  led  a victorious  army 
into  Korea,  and  it  was  Empress  Suiko 
who  inaugurated  the  refined  culture  of 
the  Nara  period.  Female  sovereigns 
175 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ascended  the  throne  in  their  own  right 
even  when  there  were  male  candidates, 
for  we  considered  woman  in  all  respects 
as  the  equal  of  man.  In  our  classic  lit- 
erature we  find  the  names  of  more  great 
authoresses  than  authors,  while  in  feudal 
days  some  of  our  amazons  charged  with 
the  bravest  of  the  Kamakura  knights. 
As  time  advanced  and  Confucian  theo- 
ries became  more  potent  in  molding  our 
social  customs,  woman  was  relegated 
from  public  life  and  confined  to  what 
was  considered  by  the  Chinese  sage  as 
her  proper  sphere,  the  household.  Our 
inherent  respect  for  the  rights  of  wo- 
manhood, however,  remained  the  same, 
and  as  late  as  the  year  1630  a female 
mikado,  Meisho-Tenno,  ascended  the 
throne  of  her  fathers.  Until  after  the 
Restoration,  a knowledge  of  such  mar- 
tial exercises  as  fencing  and  jiujitsu  was 
176 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


considered  part  of  the  education  of  a 
samurai’s  daughter,  and  is,  indeed,  still 
so  considered  among  many  old  families. 
Among  the  commoners  the  various  in- 
dustries and  trades  have  always  been 
open  to  women  as  they  are  to-day,  while 
we  have  already  seen  how,  in  spite  of  her 
apparent  seclusion,  the  Tokugawa  lady 
impressed  her  individuality  on  the  state. 
Buddhism  has  its  worship  for  the  eternal 
feminine  and  Confucianism  has  always 
inculcated  a reverence  for  womanhood, 
teaching  that  the  wife  should  always  be 
treated  with  the  respect  due  to  a guest 
or  friend. 

We  have  never  hitherto,  however, 
learned  to  off  er  any  special  privileges  to 
woman.  Love  has  never  occupied  an 
important  place  in  Chinese  literature; 
and  in  the  tales  of  J apanese  chivalry,  the 
samurai,  although  ever  at  the  service  of 
177 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


the  weak  and  oppressed,  gave  his  help 
quite  irrespective  of  sex.  To-day  we 
are  convinced  that  the  elevation  of  wo- 
man is  the  elevation  of  the  race.  She  is 
the  epitome  of  the  past  and  the  reser- 
voir of  the  future,  so  that  the  responsi- 
bilities of  the  new  social  life  which  is 
dawning  on  the  ancient  realms  of  the 
Sun-goddess  may  be  safely  intrusted 
to  her  care.  Since  the  Restoration  we 
have  not  only  confirmed  the  equality  of 
sex  in  law,  but  have  adopted  that  atti- 
tude of  respect  which  the  West  pays  to 
woman.  She  now  possesses  all  the 
rights  of  her  Western  sister,  though  she 
does  not  care  to  insist  upon  them;  for  al- 
most all  of  our  women  still  consider  the 
home,  and  not  society,  as  their  proper 
sphere. 

Time  alone  can  decide  the  future  of 
the  Japanese  lady,  for  the  question  of 
178 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


womanhood  is  one  involving  the  whole 
social  life  and  its  web  of  convention.  In 
the  East  woman  has  always  been  wor- 
shiped as  the  mother,  and  all  those  hon- 
ors which  the  Christian  knight  brought 
in  homage  to  his  lady-love,  the  samurai 
laid  at  his  mother’s  feet.  It  is  not  that 
the  wife  is  less  adored,  but  that  mater- 
nity is  holier.  Again,  our  woman  loves 
to  serve  her  husband;  for  service  is  the 
noblest  expr.ession  of  aff  ection,  and  love 
rejoices  more  in  giving  than  in  receiv- 
ing. In  the  harmony  of  Eastern  society 
the  man  consecrates  himself  to  the  state, 
the  child  to  the  parent,  and  the  wife  to 
the  husband. 

After  the  successful  accomplishment 
of  the  Restoration,  there  still  remained 
for  nearly  thirty  years  one  bitter  drop 
in  our  cup  of  happiness.  That  was  the 
question  of  treaty  revision.  We  had  es- 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


i 


tablished  a constitutional  government 
and  a complete  educational  system;  we 
had  reorganized  our  army  and  navy  and 
joined  the  Geneva  Convention;  we  had 
remodeled  our  civil  law  code  and  devel- 
oped extensive  commercial  relations 
with  the  rest  of  the  world,  yet  the  for- 
eign powers  persistently  refused  to  re- 
vise the  obsolete  treaties  signed  under 
the  Tokugawa  shogunate.  We  did  not 
complain  of  the  low  rate  of  our  customs- 
duties,  though  with  our  growing  com- 
merce this  meant  a heavy  loss  to  us, 
but  of  the  jurisdiction  exercised  by  ex- 
territorial courts.  Japan  was  restored, 
but  not  entirely  freed.  There  were 
spots  in  the  Mikado’s  realm  which  his 
sovereignty  could  not  reach.  The  West- 
erner, who  has  never  known  the  pres- 
ence of  a foreign  consular  court  in 
his  own  country,  cannot  be  expected  to 
180 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


realize  the  anguish  that  they  cause 
to  those  upon  whom  they  are  imposed. 
It  is  not  that  the  decisions  of  these 
courts  are  unfair,  but  misunderstand- 
ings are  always  arising  through  the 
existence  of  race  distinctions,  while  the 
fact  that  foreign  laws  should  be  ad- 
ministered at  all  is  in  itself  a condem- 
nation of  the  law  and  justice  of  the 
country,  and  is  necessarily  a humiliation 
to  any  self-respecting  nation.  Since  the 
beginning  of  the  Restoration  the  efforts 
of  our  government  have  been  constantly 
directed  toward  the  abolishment  of  this 
system,  but  every  proposal  of  ours  was 
either  met  by  the  foreign  powers  with  a 
peremptory  refusal  or  elicited  some  ex- 
orbitant demand  in  exchange.  The 
United  States  of  America,  it  is  true, 
agreed  to  a revision  if  all  the  other  pow- 
ers would  join,  but  this  was  something 
181 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


which  Europe  was  sure  not  to  do.  It 
was  a hard  task  for  us  to  convince  the 
West  that  an  Eastern  nation  could  suc- 
cessfully assume  the  responsibilities  of 
an  enlightened  people.  It  was  not  until 
our  war  with  China  in  1894-95  had 
revealed  our  military  strength  as  well  as 
our  capacity  to  maintain  a high  stand- 
ard of  international  morality,  that  Eu- 
rope consented  to  put  an  end  to  her 
ex-territorial  jurisdiction  in  Japan.  It 
is  one  of  the  painful  lessons  of  history 
that  civilization,  in  its  progress,  often 
climbs  over  the  bodies  of  the  slain. 

Great  are  the  struggles  that  we  have 
had  to  undergo  during  these  last  few 
decades.  In  the  turmoil  of  the  reforma- 
tion the  swing  of  the  pendulum  was 
often  extreme,  causing  the  passage  of 
many  unnecessary  if  not  actually  harm- 
ful measures.  We  have  often  stood  be- 
182 


RESTORATION— REFORMATION 


wildered  in  the  mid-stream  of  conflicting 
opinions,  watching  with  dismay  the 
shifting  sand-banks  of  the  half-realized 
constantly  changing  with  the  currents 
of  subconscious  thought.  All  the  ri- 
diculousness of  paradox,  all  the  cruelty 
of  dilemma,  were  ours.  We  might  have 
laughed  had  we  not  wept.  Conservative 
reactions  caused  riots  and  local  rebel- 
lions in  which  we  lost  many  of  the  great- 
est pioneers  of  our  reformation,  and 
radical  zealots  often  cut  short  with  their 
swords  the  career  of  some  far-sighted 
leader.  We  must  be  ever  thankful  that 
the  helm  was  held  throughout  by  hands 
strong  enough  to  keep  the  ship  of  state 
steadily  on  its  course,  in  spite  of  storms 
and  contrary  currents. 


183 


IX 


THE  REINCARNATION 

PESSIMISTS  declare  that  the  Old  Ja- 
pan is  no  more.  They  hold  that 
in  her  modernization  she  has  lost  her 
individuality  and  broken  the  thread  of 
her  historic  unity.  Eminent  European 
writers  have  regarded  the  present  con- 
dition of  affairs  in  Japan  as  transient 
and  impermanent,  a strange  freak  of 
orientalism  sooner  or  later  doomed  to 
disintegration.  They  image  our  muta- 
bility in  the  straw  sandals  which  we 
change  at  every  stage  of  a journey; 
our  disregard  of  all  permanence  in  the 
wooden  houses  that  are  daily  swept  away 
by  conflagrations.  To  them  everything 
184 


THE  REINCARNATION 


Japanese  lacks  solidity  and  stability, 
from  the  constantly  vibrating  land  in 
which  we  dwell  to  the  philosophy  of 
Buddliism  teaching  the  evanescence  of 
all  things. 

It  is  true  that  the  imperative  needs  of 
our  sudden  transformation  from  the  old 
to  the  new  life  have  swept  away  many 
landmarks  of  Old  Japan;  yet  in  spite  of 
changes,  we  have  still  been  able  to  re- 
main true  to  our  former  ideals ; though 
our  sandals  be  changed,  our  journey 
continues;  though  our  houses  be  burnt, 
our  cities  remain ; and  the  earthquake  but 
shows  the  virility  of  the  mighty  fish  that 
upholds  our  island  empire.^ 

It  should  be  remembered  that  in 
Eastern  philosophy  the  poetry  of  things 
is  more  real  and  vital  than  mere  facts 

^Japanese  folk-lore  teaches  that  earthquakes  are 
caused  by  the  movements  of  a huge  fish  which  bears 
the  islands  of  Japan  upon  its  back. 

185 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


and  events.  Buddhism,  which  taught 
the  transitory  nature  of  the  mun- 
dane, never  for  a moment  ceased  to 
teach  the  immutability  of  the  soul. 
Since  the  earliest  dawn  of  history  our 
national  patriotism  and  devotion  to  the 
Mikado  show  a consistent  tenacity  of  an- 
cient ideals,  while  the  fact  that  we  have 
preserved  the  arts  and  customs  of  an- 
cient China  and  India  long  after  they 
have  become  lost  in  the  lands  of  their 
birth  is  sufficient  testimony  to  our  rever- 
ence for  traditions.  Our  conservatism 
is  well  typified  by  the  Shinto  temple  of 
Ise,  where  the  Sun-goddess,  founder  of 
our  imperial  line,  is  forever  worshiped. 
That  holiest  shrine  of  our  ancestrism 
remains  to-day  as  perfect  in  its  pristine 
beauty  as  it  was  twenty  centuries  ago, 
being  rebuilt  every  twenty  years  on  an 
alternate  site  in  its  exact  original  form. 

186 


THE  REINCARNATION 


The  world  may,  perhaps,  laugh  at  our 
love  of  monotony,  but  can  never  accuse 
us  of  a lack  of  constancy.  Our  indi- 
viduality has  been  preserved  from  sub- 
mersion beneath  the  mighty  tide  of 
Western  ideas  by  the  same  national 
characteristics  which  ever  enabled  us  to 
remain  true  to  ourselves  in  spite  of  re- 
peated influxes  of  foreign  thought. 
F rom  time  immemorial  the  civilizations 
of  China  and  India  have  silted  over 
Korea  and  the  adjacent  coasts  of  Japan. 
The  Tang  dynasty  flooded  us  with  its 
pantheism  and  harmonism,  while  under 
the  Sung  dynasty  new  elements  of  ro- 
manticism and  individualism  were  car- 
ried to  our  shores.  From  the  dualistic 
theories  of  the  Hinayana^  to  the  ultra- 
monistic  doctrines  of  Bodliidharma,^  In- 

^ Southern  school  of  Buddhism,  or  Lesser  Vehicle. 

2 An  Indian  monk  who  came  to  China  in  the  sixth 
century  and  started  the  early  form  of  Zen. 

187 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


dia  has  dowered  us  with  a wealth  of 
religion  and  philosophy.  Different  and 
conflicting  as  were  these  various  schools 
of  thought,  Japan  has  welcomed  them 
all  and  assimilated  whatever  ministered 
to  her  mental  needs,  incorporating  the 
gift  as  an  integral  part  of  her  thought- 
inheritance.  The  hearth  of  our  ancient 
ideals  was  ever  guarded  by  a careful 
eclecticism,  while  the  broad  fields  of 
our  national  life,  enriched  by  the  fer- 
tile deposits  of  each  successive  inun- 
dation, burst  forth  into  fresher  verdure. 
The  expenditure  of  thought  involved 
in  synthesizing  the  different  elements 
of  Asiatic  culture  has  given  to  Japa- 
nese philosophy  and  art  a freedom  and 
virility  unknown  to  India  and  China. 
It  is  thus  due  to  past  training  that 
we  are  able  to  comprehend  and  appre- 
ciate more  easily  than  our  neighbors 
188 


THE  REINCARNATION 


those  elements  of  Western  civilization 
which  it  is  desirable  that  we  should  ac- 
quire. Accustomed  to  accept  the  new 
without  sacrificing  the  old,  our  adoption 
of  Western  methods  has  not  so  greatly 
affected  the  national  life  as  is  generally 
supposed.  The  same  eclecticism  which 
had  chosen  Buddha  as  the  spiritual  and 
Confucius  as  the  moral  guide,  hailed 
modern  science  as  the  beacon  of  material 
progress.  Our  efforts  to  master  certain 
phases  of  W estern  development  have  re- 
sulted in  an  increase  of  industrial  activ- 
ity and  the  introduction  of  scientific 
sanitation  and  surgery,  while  our  meth- 
ods of  communication  and  transporta- 
tion have  been  greatly  improved  and  the 
ordinary  comforts  of  life  are  much  more 
universally  enjoyed  than  ever  before. 
Development  along  such  lines,  however, 
has  but  little  eff  ect  on  our  national  char- 
189 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


acter  beyond  acting  as  a stimulus  for 
further  efforts. 

Again,  the  adoption  of  Western  po- 
litical and  social  customs  has  not  neces- 
sitated so  great  a change  on  our  part  as 
might  at  first  seem  apparent.  Our  past 
experience  taught  us  to  choose  in  West- 
ern institutions  only  what  was  consistent 
with  our  Eastern  nature.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  in  spite  of  the  seeming 
demarcation  of  the  East  and  the  West, 
all  human  development  is  fundamen- 
tally the  same,  and  that  in  the  vast  range 
of  Asiatic  history  there  can  be  found  al- 
most every  variety  of  social  usage.  We 
have  already  alluded  to  that  ancient 
Confucian  state  which  suggested  de- 
mocracy to  the  Unionists.  The  five 
grades  of  nobility  from  duke  to  baron 
were  known  in  the  Chow  dynasty  three 
thousand  years  ago.  Slavery  was  abol- 
190 


THE  REINCARNATION 


ished  by  the  Hang  dynasty  during  the 
first  century  of  the  Christian  era.  So- 
cialistic theories  concerning  the  equal 
distribution  of  property  and  govern- 
ment management  of  agricultural  prod- 
ucts, were  carried  into  actual  practice 
during  the  Hang  and  Sung  dynasties. 
Modern  German  idealism  was  antici- 
pated in  India  many  ages  ago,  while 
Christianity  has  many  parallelisms  in 
Buddhism.  The  modern  European  ten- 
dency toward  the  demarcation  of  the 
church  from  the  state,  as  well  as  the  civil- 
service  examination  system,  has  existed 
in  China  since  early  days.  It  was  on  ac- 
count of  these  and  many  other  points  of 
resemblance  between  Western  and  Asi- 
atic civilizations  that  Japan  was  able  to 
borrow  much  from  Europe  and  America 
without  violating  her  sense  of  tradition. 

One  who  looks  beneath  the  surface  of 
191 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


tilings  can  see,  in  spite  of  her  modern 
garb,  that  the  heart  of  Old  Japan  is  still 
beating  strongly.  Our  Civil  Code, 
which  embodies  the  spirit  of  Western 
law,  incorporates  to  a great  extent  the 
customs  and  usages  of  our  past.  Our 
Constitution,  though  it  may  seem  simi- 
lar to  many  Western  constitutions,  is 
founded  on  our  ancient  system  of  gov- 
ernment, and  even  finds  its  prototype  in 
the  days  of  the  gods.  The  J apanese  Re- 
naissance, which  began  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  has  never  stayed  its  course. 
Armed  with  more  systematic  methods, 
our  scholars  still  pursue  their  research 
into  ancient  art  and  literature.  The 
Historical  Bureau  of  Tokio  University 
has  already  collected  an  immense  quan- 
tity of  material  for  the  reconstruction  of 
our  annals.  The  Imperial  Archseologi- 
cal  Commission  has,  in  the  last  fif- 
192 


THE  REINCARNATION 


teen  years,  ransacked  the  monasteries 
throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  em- 
pire, and  confuted  many  of  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Tokugawa  critics.  Rare 
Chinese  books  are  eagerly  sought  after, 
an  extremely  valuable  collection  being 
recently  acquired  from  the  imperial  ar- 
chives of  Peking.  An  interest  in  San- 
skrit literature  has  also  arisen,  and  the 
Max  Muller  library  has  been  recently 
purchased  and  brought  to  Tokio,  while 
Buddhism  and  Confucianism  are  studied 
with  even  greater  zest  than  they  were  at 
the  outset  of  the  Restoration.  Old  cus- 
toms and  ceremonies  are  being  revived, 
and  a knowledge  of  our  ancient  etiquette 
forms  as  much  a part  of  a gentleman’s 
training  as  ever  it  did,  the  tendency  of 
democracy  being  only  to  make  it  more 
universal  than  before.  The  tea-cere- 
mony and  flower-arrangement  have 
193 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


again  become  common  features  in  the 
life  of  our  ladies.  Classic  music  and 
drama  are  widely  studied  even  by  people 
of  European  education.  It  may  not, 
perhaps,  be  generally  known  that  the 
ancient  ceremonial  functions  of  the 
court  are  kept  up  to-day  without  any 
alteration  in  form.  As  a notable  in- 
stance of  this,  we  may  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  declaration  of  war  with 
Russia  was  announced  to  the  Sun-god- 
dess by  a distinguished  envoy  from  the 
Mikado,  and  a special  guard  was  de- 
tailed for  service  at  the  shrine  in  Ise 
during  the  continuance  of  hostilities. 

As  Hakuraku  discerned  the  real 
horse,  so  may  he  who  perceives  the  real 
spirit  of  things  see  in  current  events 
the  reincarnation  of  Old  Japan.  In  the 
thoroughness  and  minutiae  of  our  prepa- 
rations for  war,  he  will  recognize  the 
194. 


THE  REINCARNATION 


same  hands  whose  untiring  patience 
gave  its  exquisite  finish  to  our  lacquer. 
In  the  tender  care  bestowed  upon  our 
stricken  adversary  of  the  battle-field 
will  be  found  the  ancient  courtesy  of  the 
samurai,  who  knew  “the  sadness  of 
things  ” and  looked  to  his  enemy’s 
wound  before  his  own.  The  ardor  that 
leads  our  sailors  into  daring  enterprises 
is  inspired  by  the  Neo-Confucian  doc- 
trine which  teaches  that  to  know  is  to 
do.  The  calmness  with  which  our  peo- 
ple have  met  the  exigencies  of  a national 
crisis  is  a heritage  from  those  disciples 
of  Buddha  who  in  the  silence  of  the 
monastery  meditated  on  change. 

All  that  is  vital  and  representative  in 
our  contemporary  art  and  literature  is 
the  revivified  expression  of  the  national 
school,  not  imitation  of  European  mod- 
els. The  brilliant  creations  of  our  lead- 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN  ‘ 


ing  novelists,  Koda-Rohan  and  the  late 
Ozaki-Koyo,  are  based  on  a revival  of 
the  style  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  name  of  the  lamented  Danjuro,  one 
of  the  greatest  actors  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  is  inseparably  connected  with 
our  historical  drama.  The  well-known 
ceramists,  Takemoto-Hayata,  Makuzu- 
Kozan,  and  Seifu-Yohei,  may  be  consid- 
ered as  wonderful  as  the  old  Chinese 
masters  whose  secrets  they  have  discov- 
ered. Natsuo,  Zesshin,  Hogai,  and 
Gaho  illustriously  prove  that  the  spirit 
of  our  ancient  art  still  lives.  We  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  the  study  of  European 
art  and  literature  is  in  any  way  injurious 
or  even  undesirable,  but  that  so  far  its 
results  can  in  no  way  compare  with  the 
achievements  of  the  native  school. 

It  is  a matter  of  no  small  wonder  that 
our  national  art  should  have  survived 
196 


THE  REINCARNATION 


amid  the  adverse  surroundings  in  which 
it  found  itself.  The  philistine  nature  of 
industrialism  and  the  restlessness  of  ma- 
terial progress  are  inimical  to  Eastern 
art.  The  machinery  of  competition  im- 
poses the  monotony  of  fashion  instead 
of  the  variety  of  life.  The  cheap  is  wor- 
shiped in  place  of  the  beautiful,  while 
the  ru§h  and  struggle  of  modern  exis- 
tence give  no  opportunity  for  the  leisure 
required  for  the  crystallization  of  ideals. 
Patronage  is  no  longer  even  the  sign  of 
individual  bad  taste.  Music  is  criticized 
through  the  eye,  a picture  through  the 
ear. 

The  possibility  that  J apanese  art  may 
become  a thing  of  the  past  is  a matter  of 
sympathetic  concern  to  the  esthetic  com- 
munity of  the  West.  It  should  be 
known  that  our  art  is  suffering  not 
merely  from  the  purely  utilitarian  trend 
197 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


of  modern  life,  but  also  from  an  inroad 
of  Western  ideas.  The  demand  of  the 
Western  market  for  dubious  art  goods, 
together  with  the  constant  criticism  of 
our  standard  of  taste,  has  told  upon  our 
individuality.  Our  difficulty  lies  in  the 
fact  that  Japanese  art  stands  alone  in 
the  world,  without  immediate  possibility 
of  any  accession  or  reinforcement  from 
kindred  ideals  or  technique.  We  no  lon- 
ger have  the  benefit  of  a living  art  in 
China  to  excite  our  rivalry  and  urge  us 
on  to  fresh  endeavors.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  unfortunately  contemptuous 
attitude  which  the  average  Westerner 
assumes  toward  everything  connected 
with  Oriental  civilization  tends  to  de- 
stroy our  self-confidence  in  regard  to 
our  canons  of  art.  Those  European  and 
American  connoisseurs  who  appreciate 
our  efforts  may  not  realize  that  the 
198 


THE  REINCARNATION 


West,  as  a whole,  is  constantly  preach- 
ing the  superiority  of  its  own  culture 
and  art  to  those  of  the  East.  Japan 
stands  alone  against  all  the  world.  It 
is  but  natural  that  the  weak-spirited 
among  us  follow  the  trend  of  world- 
opinion  and  desert  the  ranks  of  con- 
servative upholders  of  our  national 
school.  The  delight  of  some  of  our 
gilded  youths  in  the  latest  cut  of  a Lon- 
don tailor  or  the  last  novelty  from  Paris 
is  one  of  the  pathetic  indications  of  an 
attempted  protective  coloring  against 
the  universal  condemnation  of  Eastern 
customs. 

Japanese  art  has  done  wonders  in  re- 
maining true  to  itself  in  spite  of  the  odds 
it  has  had  to  face.  We  trust  and  hope 
that  the  tenacious  vitality  which  it  has 
evinced,  in  spite  of  the  overwhelming 
occidentalism  of  the  last  four  decades, 
199 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


will  keep  Japanese  art  intact  in  the  fu- 
ture. Every  accession  to  our  national 
self-confidence  is  a strong  incentive  to 
the  preservation  of  national  ideals.  A 
great  reaction  toward  native  customs 
and  art  has  been  manifested  since  our 
victory  over  China  ten  years  ago.  We 
hope  that  our  success  over  a stronger  ad- 
versary than  China  will  give  us  a still 
deeper  self-confidence.  We  shall  be 
ready  more  than  ever  to  learn  and  as- 
similate what  the  West  has  to  offer,  but 
we  must  remember  that  our  claim  to  re- 
spect lies  in  remaining  faithful  to  our 
own  ideals. 


200 


32 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 

WE  have  been  repeatedly  accused  of 
belligerent  designs  and  expan- 
sive ambitions.  Perhaps  to  European 
nations,  with  their  traditions  of  con- 
quest and  colonization,  it  may  be  incon- 
ceivable that  we  are  not  animated  by 
the  same  spirit  of  aggrandizement  that 
has  often  led  them  into  war.  But  to 
any  one  who  cares  to  study  the  history 
of  our  foreign  policy  nothing  can  be 
clearer  than  the  constancy  of  our  de- 
sire for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  our 
final  recourse  to  war  being  forced  upon 
us  by  the  necessity  of  safeguarding 
our  national  existence.  The  very  na- 
201 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


ture  of  our  civilization,  in  fact,  pro- 
hibits aggression  against  foreign  na- 
tions. Confucianism,  which  is  an  epit- 
ome of  the  agricultural  civilization  of 
China,  is  essentially  self-contained  and 
non-aggressive  in  its  nature.  The  fer- 
tihty  of  the  vast  plains  wherein  the 
teachings  of  Confucius  were  followed 
rendered  any  overstepping  of  their 
natural  boundaries  unnecessary.  The 
message  of  the  sage  made  love  of  the 
soil  and  consercration  of  labor  go  hand 
in  hand.  He  and  his  followers  taught 
the  homely  and  the  patriarchal  virtues 
of  meekness  and  harmony.  Later  came 
Buddhism  to  reinforce  the  root-idea  of 
contentment  and  self-restraint.  Not 
once  during  the  whole  of  their  hoary 
history  do  we  find  the  native  dynasties 
of  China  and  India  ever  coming  into 
collision  with  each  other.  The  only  oc- 
202 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


casion  on  which  China  ever  menaced  J a- 
pan  was  when  in  the  twelfth  century  her 
own  Mongol  conquerors  tried  to  impose 
their  authority  upon  us. 

Japan,  though  originally  a maritime 
nation,  had  through  the  influence  of 
Confucianism  and  Buddhism  long  ago 
become,  like  her  neighbors,  self-con- 
tained, seeking  the  fulfilment  of  her  des- 
tinies within  the  narrow  limits  of  her 
island  empire.  The  fact  that  in  the 
eighth  century  we  had  given  up  our  an- 
cient dominion  over  Korea,  proves  how 
deeply  the  continental  idea  had  become  a 
part  of  our  national  consciousness.  The 
Korean  peninsula  had  probably  origi- 
nally been  colonized  by  us  during  pre- 
historic ages.  Archaeological  remains  in 
Korea  are  of  exactly  the  same  type  as 
those  found  in  our  primitive  dolmens. 
The  Korean  language  remains,  even  to- 
203 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


day,  the  nearest  allied  to  ours  of  all  the 
Asiatic  tongues.  Our  earliest  traditions 
tell  of  the  god  Sosano,  brother  of  our 
imperial  ancestress,  settling  in  Korea; 
and  Dankun,  first  king  of  that  country, 
is  considered  by  some  historians  to  have 
been  his  son.  The  third  century  dis- 
closes our  Empress  Zhingo  leading  an 
invasion  of  the  peninsula  in  order  to  re- 
establish our  sovereignty,  threatened  by 
the  rise  of  a number  of  small  indepen- 
dent kingdoms.  Our  annals  are  filled 
until  the  eighth  century  with  accounts  of 
our  protection  over  colonies.  From  this 
time  onward,  however,  a great  change 
comes  over  Japan,  and  all  our  energy 
is  expended  in  religious  fervor.  This 
age,  which  witnessed  the  erection  of  in- 
numerable monasteries  and  the  casting 
of  the  colossal  Buddha  of  Nara,  saw  the 
last  of  our  Korean  colonies  allowed  to 
204 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


perish,  her  appeals  for  help  unheeded  by 
the  mother-country. 

The  attempted  Mongol  invasion  of 
the  thirteenth  century  kindled  in  us  a 
feeling  of  animosity  toward  the  Koreans 
who  led  the  Chinese  vanguard.  Our 
only  act  of  retaliation,  however,  con- 
sisted in  the  unique  expedition  of  the 
Taiko  Hideyoshi,  who,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  led  an  army  into  Korea  to  mea- 
sure swords  with  those  whom  he  consid- 
ered as  his  hereditary  enemies.  But 
national  sentiment  had  long  lost  sympa- 
thy with  any  idea  of  foreign  conquest, 
and  the  Taiko’s  army  was  presently  re- 
called at  his  death.  The  only  result  of 
this  extraordinary  expedition  was  the 
sending,  during  subsequent  Tokugawa 
days,  of  envoys  from  the  Korean  sover- 
eign to  pay  the  homage  of  a tributary 
king  to  each  newly  appointed  shogun — 
205 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


a homage  equally  offered  to  the  Chinese 
emperors.  This  ceremony  continued  till 
the  days  of  the  Restoration,  but  we 
never  thought  of  availing  ourselves  of 
the  right  implied  by  it  to  interfere  in 
continental  politics.  On  the  contrary, 
we  prided  ourselves  upon  our  complete 
isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
did  not  even  seek  to  renew  those  diplo- 
matic amenities  with  China  which  had 
ceased  after  the  Taiko’s  expedition. 

The  Tokugawa  policy  of  non-inter- 
ference in  continental  affairs  is  well  ex- 
emplified in  the  refusal  of  aid  to  the 
celebrated  Koxinga,  a patriotic  general 
of  the  Ming  dynasty,  who  drove  the 
Dutch  out  of  Formosa  and  for  three 
generations  held  it  against  the  Manchu 
conquerors  of  China.  The  governors  of 
all  other  provinces  surrendered,  and  he 
alone  upheld  the  remnant  of  Ming  au- 
206 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


thority.  Half  a Japanese  himself, 
being  the  son  of  a Aling  refugee  by  a 
N'agasaki  woman,  he  pleaded  his  birth 
as  a reason  for  asking  for  an  alhance 
and  reinforcements  from  the  Japanese. 
Several  young  daimios,  together  with 
quite  a number  of  samurai,  fired  by  his 
appeal,  wished  to  volunteer,  but  the  To- 
kugawa  authorities  absolutely  refused 
to  allow  them  to  do  so. 

Our  relations  with  China  and  Korea 
since  the  Restoration  of  1868  are  strik- 
ingly illustrative  of  our  traditional  pol- 
icy of  peace  and  non-aggression.  When 
we  emerged  from  our  sleep  of  three  cen- 
turies international  conditions  were 
changed  indeed!  Events  were  taking 
place  in  Asia  which  threatened  our  very 
existence.  No  Eastern  nation  could 
hope  to  maintain  its  independence  un- 
less it  was  able  to  defend  itself  from  out- 
207 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


side  attack.  Natural  barriers  were  as 
naught  before  the  advance  of  science. 
The  Yellow  Sea  and  the  Korean  straits, 
which  we  formerly  considered  as  invin- 
cible obstacles  to  aggression  from  the 
continent,  amounted  to  little  since  the 
introduction  of  fast  war-ships  and  long- 
range  ordnance.  Any  hostile  power  in 
occupation  of  the  peninsula  might  easily 
throw  an  army  into  Japan,  for  Korea 
lies  like  a dagger  ever  pointed  toward 
the  very  heart  of  Japan.  Moreover,  the 
independence  of  Korea  and  Manchuria 
is  economically  necessary  to  the  preser- 
vation of  our  race,  for  starvation  awaits 
our  ever-increasing  population  if  it  be 
deprived  of  its  legitimate  outlet  in  the 
sparsely  cultivated  areas  of  these  coun- 
tries. To-day  the  Muscovites  have  laid 
their  hands  on  these  territories,  with  none 
but  us  to  offer  any  resistance.  Under 
208 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


these  circumstances,  we  are  compelled  to 
regard  our  ancient  domain  of  Korea  as 
lying  within  our  lines  of  legitimate  na- 
tional defense.  It  was  when  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  peninsula  was  threat- 
ened by  China  in  1894  that  we  were 
compelled  to  go  to  war  with  the  latter 
country.  It  was  for  this  same  indepen- 
dence that  we  fought  Russia  in  1904. 

There  were  several  occasions  when  we 
might  have  taken  possession  of  Korea, 
but  we  forbore,  in  the  face  of  strong 
provocaition,  because  our  wishes  were  for 
peace.  We  must  remember  that  the  his- 
toric spirit  that  created  the  Restoration 
also  recalled  the  fact  that  Korea  was 
originally  a Japanese  province,  and  in 
the  Tokugawa  days  paid  tribute  to  the 
shogunate.  A cams  belli  was  not  want- 
ing in  the  early  seventies  of  the  last 
century,  for  Korea  labored  under 
209 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


strange  delusions,  and  not  only  refused 
to  recognize  the  government  of  the 
Restoration,  but  heaped  insults  upon  us. 
JNIuch  less  cause  of  provocation  than 
ours  has  often  been  taken  as  a ground 
for  aggression  by  European  nations. 
The  divisions  in  the  cabinet  of  1873  and 
the  rebellion  caused  by  the  secession- 
ists of  Satsuma  in  1879  were  the  result 
of  disputes  between  the  war  and  peace 
parties,  in  which  the  latter  always  came 
out  victorious.  At  that  time  the  West 
had  not  the  keen  interest  in  the  East 
that  she  has  since  acquired,  and  would 
not  have  interfered  with  our  actions. 
The  members  of  the  war  party  urged 
that  the  unique  moment  had  arrived 
when  Japan  might  assume  control  of 
Korea  and  lay  at  rest  forever  the  danger 
of  her  falling  into  the  hands  of  some 
other  power.  To  them  Korea  had  al- 
210 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


ways  been  a tributary  nation,  and  we 
would  be  but  confirming  already  exist- 
ing rights.  Perhaps  if  the  Korean  ques- 
tion had  been  then  settled,  all  the  blood- 
shed of  the  Chinese  and  Russian  wars 
might  have  been  avoided. 

The  Mikado’s  chief  advisers,  together 
with  a majority  of  those  who  had  a voice 
in  the  government,  were  strongly  op- 
posed to  the  views  of  the  war  party.  In 
their  eyes  the  Restoration  had  a higher 
significance  than  could  be  found  in 
aggrandizement  at  the  expense  of  neigh- 
boring countries.  To  them  it  repre- 
sented the  principles  of  justice  and  hu- 
manity, liberalism,  and  the  elevation  of 
the  Japanese  race.  Its  very  key-notes 
should  be  nobleness  and  self-sacrifice, 
the  virtues  of  the  samurai  enlarged  into 
those  of  the  nation.  The  lives  of  those 
statesmen  who,  like  Okubo-Toshimichi, 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


Kido-Koyin,  and  Prince  Iwakura,  held 
to  these  lofty  ideals  gave  its  moral  tone 
to  the  present  Japanese  government  and 
are  eloquent  of  unselfishness  and  purity. 
Their  simplicity  and  determination  are 
characteristic  of  those  enlightened  spir- 
its who  appear  to  guide  the  people  dur- 
ing the  critical  moments  of  every  na- 
tional regeneration. 

The  advocates  of  peace  prevailed,  and 
the  war  party  resigned  from  the  gov- 
ernment and  rose  in  rebellion,  so  that 
those  who  remained  in  power  were  often 
obliged  to  inflict  the  penalty  of  death 
upon  their  erstwhile  dearest  friends. 
The  Mikado,  always  for  peace,  not  only 
forbade  any  expedition  against  Korea, 
but  cultivated  her  friendship.  In  1876 
a treaty  of  amity  was  signed,  in  which  we 
recognized  the  full  sovereignty  of  the 
Hermit  Kingdom  and  for  the  first  time 
212 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


opened  for  her  commercial  relations  with 
the  rest  of  the  world.  Thus  began  our 
open-door  policy  in  the  far  East.  Our 
object  in  renouncing  our  rights  over  a 
tributary  kingdom  was  to  force  China 
to  do  likewise  and  thus  create  a neutral 
zone  between  the  two  nations.  If  China 
and  Russia  had  respected  the  indepen- 
dence of  Korea,  no  wars  would  have 
taken  place. 

The  war  with  China  in  1894-95  was 
brought  about  by  the  ambition  of  China 
to  make  herself  the  practical  owner  of 
Korea,  which  she  claimed  as  a tributary 
state.  To  the  ancient  pride  of  China  the 
treaty  of  1876  by  which  we  recognized 
the  independence  of  Korea  was  a heavy 
blow.  She  deeply  resented  the  action  of 
J apan  in  placing  that  kingdom  beyond 
the  pale  of  her  dominion.  Her  con- 
servative instincts  revolted  against  our 
213 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


modernization,  and  she  sought  to  humi- 
liate that  upstart  nation  which  was  so 
insignificant  compared  with  her  in  point 
of  size.  The  situation  resembled  that 
between  Austria  and  Prussia  in  the  last 
century,  before  the  Seven  Weeks’  War, 
and  was  practically  the  outcome  of  a 
family  quarrel  which  had  to  be  settled 
once  for  all.  The  parallelism  may  be 
still  further  followed  in  the  internal 
division  of  Austria  and  Hungary  and 
that  of  Manchuria  and  China  proper, 
for  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  bel- 
ligerent party  was  centered  around  the 
IManchurian  court  at  Peking  and  the 
viceroys  of  Northern  China,  whereas  the 
southerners  were  but  lukewarm,  even 
delighting  in  the  Japanese  successes. 
In  this  may  be  found  one  of  the  causes 
for  the  easy  defeat  of  China  at  our 
hands. 


214i 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


The  long-sought  opportunity  for  seiz- 
ing the  control  of  Korea  was  offered  to 
China  in  the  discord  of  the  Korean  gov- 
ernment. Here  again  the  antagonism 
of  the  cabinet  and  the  household,  so 
fatal  to  Eastern  autocracy,  was  the  real 
cause  of  all  trouble.  To  the  enlightened 
statesmen  of  Seoul  the  opening  of  the 
country  and  the  proposed  development 
of  her  resources  were  matters  of  great 
satisfaction.  The  ladies  of  the  house- 
hold, however,  feared  the  loss  of  their 
privileges  in  the  liberal  form  of  govern- 
ment which  the  cabinet  was  eager  to  es- 
tablish. The  household  appealed  to 
China  for  support,  while  the  progressive 
cabinet  sought  the  aid  of  Japan.  A 
diplomatic  duel  ensued,  which,  as  usual, 
resulted  in  the  victory  of  the  ladies. 
Practical  control  over  the  Korean  gov- 
ernment was  obtained  by  China  in  the 
215 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


year  1894,  and  she  decided  to  install  her- 
self permanently  in  the  peninsula  by 
sending  thither,  in  spite  of  our  protests, 
a large  body  of  troops.  The  history  of 
the  war  is  well  known.  Ping-yang  was 
another  Sadowa,  and  our  army  con- 
quered the  whole  of  southern  Manchu- 
ria, including  Port  Arthur.  In  1895  a 
peace  was  signed,  by  the  terms  of  which 
China  fully  recognized  the  indepen- 
dence of  Korea  and  ceded  to  us 
Formosa,  together  with  the  territories 
which  we  occupied  at  the  end  of  the  war. 
By  this  treaty  we  had  attained  the  ob- 
ject of  our  campaign,  which  was  the 
protection  of  the  territorial  integrity  of 
Korea  as  a safeguard  against  any  fur- 
ther danger  from  China.  With  virtual 
command  of  the  Yellow  Sea  our  anxiety 
was  set  at  rest. 

It  was  then  that  the  triple  coalition 
216 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


interfered  with  the  just  fruits  of  our 
victory.  In  the  name  of  peace,  Russia, 
upheld  by  Germany  and  France,  forci- 
bly demanded  that  we  give  up  our  newly 
acquired  possessions  in  Manchuria.  This 
unexpected  blow  was  a severe  one,  con- 
sidering the  great  sacrifices  we  had 
made  in  the  war.  We  were,  however,  in 
no  position  to  refuse  the  combined  de- 
mands of  the  three  powers,  and  had  only 
to  submit;  moreover,  as  their  interven- 
tion came  in  the  sacred  name  of  peace, 
the  nation  had  to  be  content.  The  fact 
that  the  Muscovite  empire  soon  after 
coolly  took  possession  of  Port  Arthur, 
which  she  had  asked  us  to  evacuate, 
seemed  a queer  proceeding;  but  we  of- 
fered no  opposition  to  her  action,  for,  as 
novices  in  European  diplomacy,  we  still 
believed  in  international  morality  and 
relied  on  the  fair  words  of  the  Russians 
217 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


when  they  declared  that  their  intention 
w as  to  hold  that  place  merely  in  the  in- 
terests of  universal  commerce.  Nine 
years  elapsed,  during  which  their  real 
designs  became  revealed.  The  greatest 
shock  came  to  us,  however,  when  we 
found  that  they  were  determined  not 
only  to  possess  Manchuria,  but  also  to 
annex  Korea.  Protest  after  protest  was 
made  on  our  part.  Promise  after  prom- 
ise was  given  by  Russia,  never  to  be  ful- 
filled. Meanwhile,  she  was  pouring 
huge  armies  into  jNIanchuria,  and  her  ad- 
vance-guard entered  Korea  itself.  The 
throat  of  the  dragon  was  touched,  and 
we  arose.  Among  the  crags  of  Liao- 
tung and  the  billows  of  the  Yellow  Sea 
we  closed  in  deadly  conflict.  We 
fought  not  only  for  our  motherland,  but 
for  the  ideals  of  the  recent  reformation, 
for  the  noble  heritage  of  classic  culture, 
218 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


and  for  those  dreams  of  peace  and  har- 
mony in  which  we  saw  a glorious  rebirth 
for  all  Asia. 

Who  speaks  of  the  Yellow  Peril? 
The  idea  that  China  might,  with  the  aid 
of  Japan,  hurl  her  hosts  against  Europe 
would  be  too  absurd  even  to  notice  were 
it  not  for  those  things  from  which  atten- 
tion is  drawn  by  the  utterance.  It  may 
not,  perhaps,  be  generally  known  that 
the  expression  “ Yellow  Peril  ” was  first 
coined  in  Germany  when  she  was  pre- 
paring to  annex  the  coast  of  Shantung. 
Naturally,  therefore,  we  become  suspi- 
cious when  Russia  takes  up  the  cry  at 
the  very  moment  when  she  is  tightening 
the  grasp  of  her  mailed  hand  on  Man- 
churia and  Korea. 

The  Great  Wall  of  China,  the  only 
edifice  on  earth  of  sufficient  length  to  be 
seen  from  the  moon,  stands  as  a monu- 
219 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


mental  protest  against  the  possibility  of 
such  a peril.  This  ancient  rampart, 
stretching  from  Shan-hai-kuan  to  the 
Tonkan  Pass,  was  erected  not  only  as  a 
barrier  against  foreign  encroachment, 
but  also  as  the  self-defined  territorial 
limit  of  Celestial  ambition.  During  the 
twenty-one  centuries  of  its  existence 
but  occasional  sorties  were  made  through 
its  gates,  and  those  only  with  the  object 
of  chastising  predatory  tribes.  It  is  a 
fact  peculiarly  worthy  of  note  that  the 
legendary  lore  of  the  Chinese  contains 
no  tale  of  over-sea  or  crusade-like  enter- 
prises, no  account  of  Macedonian  con- 
quests or  Roman  triumphs.  The  epics 
of  the  Trojan  war  or  the  Viking  sagas 
find  no  echo  in  the  literature  of  the  Flow- 
ery Kingdom.  This  cry  of  a Yellow 
Peril  must,  indeed,  sound  ironical  to  the 
Chinese,  who,  through  their  traditional 
220 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


policy  of  non-resistance,  are  even  now 
suffering  in  the  throes  of  the  White 
Disaster. 

Again,  the  whole  history  of  Japan’s 
long  and  voluntary  isolation  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  makes  such  a cry  ri- 
diculous, However  changed  modern 
conditions  may  be,  there  is  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  either  Japan  or  China 
might  suddenly  develop  a nomadic  in- 
stinct and  set  forth  on  a career  of  over- 
whelming devastation. 

If  the  wont  of  history  is  to  repeat 
itself,  if  a real  peril  is  again  to  threaten 
the  world,  it  will  be  one  born  in  the  his- 
toric cradle  of  the  steppes,  not  in  the  rich 
valleys  of  the  Hwang-hoandthe  Yang- 
tse-kiang,  nor  on  the  terraced  hillsides  of 
the  J apanese  archipelago.  It  was  from 
within  the  limits  of  imperial  Russia  that 
in  ancient  times  the  Goths,  the  Vandals, 
221 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  JAPAN 


the  Huns,  and  the  Mongols  descended, 
with  their  nomadic  hosts,  over  Europe 
and  southern  Asia.  It  is  among  the  tall 
grasses  that  wave  to  the  wind  from  the 
banks  of  the  Amur  to  the  foot  of  the 
Ural  Mountains  that  the  Siberian  Cos- 
sacks and  Tartars,  grim  descendants  of 
Jenghiz  and  Tamerlane,  still  roam  un- 
tamed. In  the  atrocities  committed  in 
Peking  and  Manchuria,  and  in  the  re- 
cent horrors  of  Kishinef,  the  world 
may  see  what  is  to  be  expected  from  the 
Muscovite  soldiery  when  once  their  sav- 
age nature  has  broken  loose.  Russia 
herself  is  responsible  for  the  possibility 
of  that  peril  which  she  now  attributes  to 
the  peaceful  nations  of  the  far  East. 

When  will  wars  cease?  In  the  West 
international  morality  remains  far  be- 
low the  standard  to  which  individual 
morality  has  attained.  Aggressive  na- 
222 


JAPAN  AND  PEACE 


tions  have  no  conscience,  and  all  chivalry 
is  forgotten  in  the  persecution  of  weaker 
races.  He  who  has  not  the  courage  and 
the  strength  to  defend  himself  is  bound 
to  be  enslaved.  It  is  sad  for  us  to  con- 
template that  our  truest  friend  is  still 
the  sword.  What  mean  these  strange 
combinations  which  Europe  displays, — 
the  hospital  and  the  torpedo,  the  Chris- 
tian missionary  and  imperialism,  the 
maintenance  of  vast  armaments  as  a 
guarantee  of  peace?  Such  contradic- 
tions did  not  exist  in  the  ancient  civiliza- 
tion of  the  East.  Such  were  not  the 
ideals  of  the  Japanese  Restoration,  such 
is  not  the  goal  of  her  reformation.  The 
night  of  the  Orient,  which  had  hidden  us 
in  its  folds,  has  been  lifted,  but  we  find 
the  world  still  in  the  dusk  of  humanity. 
Europe  has  taught  us  war;  when  shall 
she  learn  the  blessings  of  peace? 

223 


CHRONOLOGY 


India 

B.C.  623  Buddha 


243  Asoka 


A.D.  50  Kaniska 


650  Vikrama- 
ditya 


800  Sanchara- 
charya 


1024  Mahmud 

of  Ghazni 


1219  Begrinning 
of  Monffol 
Invasion 


China 

604  Lao-tsze  B.C. 

551  Confu- 
cius 
221  Tsin 

Dynasty 
202  Hang 

Dynasty 
67  Introduc- 
tion of 
Buddhism 
220  The  Three 
Kingdoms 

268  The  Six  A.D. 
Dynasties 


618  Tang 

Dynasty 


907  The  Five 
Dynasties 

960  Sung 

Dynasty 


1100  Rise  of  the 
Mongols 

1200  Jenghiz 
Khan 

1260  Yuen,  or  the 
Mongol, 
Dynasty 


B.C. 


Japan 

660  First  Em- 
peror of 
Japan 


285  Introduc- 
tion of 
Confu- 
cianism 

552  Introduc- 
tion of 
Bud- 
dhism 

700  Tlie  Nara 
Period 

800  The  Heian 
Period 

900  The  Fuji- 
wara 
Period 


1150  Decline  of 
Imperial 
Rule 

1192  Kamaku- 
ra Sho- 
gunate 
1281  Mongol 

Invasion 


224 


CHRONOLOGY 


India 


China 


Japan 


A.D.  1398  Tamerlane  A.D.  1368 

1526  The  Mogul 
Empire 

1664  Sivaji,King  1664 

of  the 
Mahrattas 

1757  Battle  of 
Plassey 

1803  The  last  of  1800 

the  Great 
Moguls 

1842  Opium  War: 
British  in 
Hongkong 

1858  British  Sov- 
ereignty 
over  India 

1860  Sack  of  the 
Summer 
Palace 


1874  French  Pro- 
tectorate 
over 
Annam 


1896  Russia  in 
Port  Ar- 
thur, Ger- 
many in 
Kiao-chau 


Ming 

Dynasty 


Manchu 

Dynasty 


Russians  on 
the  Amur 


A.D.  1334  Temporary 
Restora- 
tion of 
Imperial 
Rule 

1338  Asliikaga 
Shogunate 
1583  Taiko  Hi- 
deyoshi 
1600  Tokuga- 
wa  Sho- 
gunate 


1806  Russian  En- 
croach- 
ment on 
Yesso 


1853  The  Arrival 
of  Com- 
modore 
Perry 

1860  Death  of 

Lord  of 
Hikone 

1861  Assembly  of 

Daimios 
at  Kioto 

1867  Resignation 

of  Keiki, 
the  last 
Shogun 

1868  Restoration 

of  the  Im- 
perial 
Rule 


1894  War  with 
China 


1904  War  with 
Russia 


225 


DATE  DUE 


